The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Grand Bahama Power Company’s chief executive, and its majority shareholder, have “never seen anything like” the devastation left by Hurricane Matthew, which has forced the utility to almost rebuild its distribution network from scratch.

Sarah McDonald, GB Power’s top executive, told Tribune Business that 50 per cent of the energy provider’s transmission and distribution network (T&D) had been rebuilt by last Friday - some 22 days, or more than three weeks, after the Category Four storm’s passage.

“Certainly I’ve never seen anything like it, and the people at Emera [GB Power’s majority shareholder] have never seen anything like it,” Mrs McDonald said of the damage left by Matthew. “I’ve lived through one Category Four and hope it’s my last.”

“We’re making good progress and really starting to hit a groove,” she added of the restoration efforts. “It’s always a bit of a grind, but we’ll get it done.

“We had over 10,000 customers back as of [Friday], so that’s over the half-way mark. We’ve got 50 per cent of the distribution network rebuilt, and have set 1,100 poles.”

The GB Power Chief said that all of Grand Bahama’s major industrial companies, the likes of Polymers International, Pharmachem and the Grand Bahama Shipyard, had been restored to GB Power’s electrical system, thus ensuring that employment and economic activity levels can be maintained.

GB Power was producing 27 Mega Watts (MW) of power as of Friday, with other key users - Sanitation Services, the landfill and the wellfields - also restored.

Explaining the energy provider’s restoration strategy, Mrs McDonald explained that restoration crews would have visited every Grand Bahama neighbourhood with the exception of West End - the hardest hit area - by today.

Acknowledging that some customers would have been “frustrated” to see work crews arrive in their areas, restore other persons but then leave before their supply was reconnected, she said GB Power was now in position to address those needs.

“The way we’ve approached this is to prioritise areas based on the number of customers and the amount of damage,” Mrs McDonald explained.

“We’ve got some experts here from Nova Scotia Power [an Emera affiliate], and they have worked with our team to build a model that says: ‘Here’s where you can get the most amount of customers on in the shortest amount of time’.”

She added that up to 40-50 per cent of customers in a particular area may still be without power, even though neighbours and those in adjacent streets may have been restored, as GB Power pursued its strategy of focusing on ‘greatest restoration returns’.

“By Tuesday, we will have been in every neighbourhood except West End,” Mrs McDonald said. “The first wave will have passed through all areas, and we will have a much better idea of the outstanding things to do. Now, the crews will be peeled off from the large work and will go back into the neighbourhoods.”

She added that the challenges facing GB Power are epitomised by The Ridge area, where between four to six days’ work is required to access its electricity infrastructure, and clear hurricane-related debris and overgrown lots, to restore some 25 customers.

“That’s a decision we make when we leave,” Mrs McDonald explained. “It’s difficult, and it’s frustrating people, but if the crews don’t go on they may not have a chance to restore 400 other customers.”

Some 275 persons and 150 vehicles are involved in GB Power’s restoration efforts, which Mrs McDonald said had been “held up a little” by rough seas that have prevented the shipping of transformers to Grand Bahama.

She added that the energy monopoly was “pretty close” to having to rebuild its energy infrastructure from scratch, saying: “There wasn’t much left. If the poles weren’t down, the transformers were down and the insulation was broken.”