The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Power and Light yesterday admitted that the utility provider is still experiencing “a generation shortfall” following an island-wide outage on Sunday.

In a statement, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) said continuing challenges in the system resulted in periods of supply interruption for 20 per cent of customers on Monday. BPL also admitted that its reserve supply was affected by a major cable failure and the present generation can only meet exiting demand – meaning there is no back up if one of the present engines were to fail.

“A major cable failure was responsible for shutting down generation, transmission and distribution networks on the island around 12.30 Sunday afternoon. After an initial investigation, teams began working to restart engines and incrementally restore supply to affected communities on the island. By 6.30pm restoration was complete; however, the system shutdown caused some minor challenges that resulted in periods of supply interruption for some customers throughout the night and in to Monday morning,” the statement said.

“Yesterday’s (Sunday’s) event also impacted BPL’s reserve supply in New Providence meaning that the present generation can only meet existing demand. As a result, challenges with an engine at Clifton Pier Power Station on Monday morning resulted in a generation shortfall impacting approximately 20 per cent of customers at varying times throughout the morning and early afternoon on Monday. Repairs to that engine were completed around 2pm and supply was restored to all impacted customers by 2.40pm on Monday afternoon.”

In the meantime, BPL said the corporation is looking to complete repairs on its reserve engine before the end of the week and plans are underway to increase overall system reliability within the next few weeks and throughout the summer.

Affected customers took to BPL’s Facebook page to vent their frustration on Monday.

One customer wrote: “And now, power is off again. Second day in a row! What the hell is going on? Y’all have just gotten worse and worse! This is ridiculous! Every time it rains now, the power goes out! It’s embarrassing and disgraceful! We live in an archaic country with disgraceful infrastructure!”

Another person wrote: “Where are the updates for today’s outage? Is this going to become the norm? Every time it thunders, there’s a power outage? Worst company ever!”

BPL apologised to its customers affected by the recent outages and pledged its “full commitment to the ongoing improvement of its service across the country.”