The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Power and Light has blamed a cable fault at the corporation’s Blue Hills Power Plant for a major outage that affected about 30 per cent of New Providence for several hours on Saturday.

In a statement to the press over the weekend, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) said crews at the Blue Hills Power Plant reported that smoke could be seen at one of its stations just as several engines shut down.

Officials indicated that they isolated the cable fault responsible for the issue shortly after the disturbance, which occurred around 4.30pm Saturday.

The engines were said to have accounted for about 60 megawatts of power generation in New Providence.

“To ensure the safety of employees at the site, crews are waiting for the smoke to clear before initial investigations begin and they are able to determine the cause of the smoke and subsequent engine failures,” Saturday’s statement read.

BPL further advised that supply out of its Clifton Pier Power Plant and the other stations at Blue Hills were not affected by this major system disturbance.

The company also apologised to its customers and assured them that once it was safe to begin repair work, teams would begin efforts to restore power to those affected.

BPL completed restoration efforts around 7pm on Saturday.

The outage angered scores of residents around New Providence and led to major traffic issues across the island, as some traffic lights were out because of the electricity disruption.

In the wake of the outage, reports surfaced that because of the increased output from the Clifton plant, there was a small oil spill at the coastline facility.

When pressed for clarification on the matter, BPL Corporate Communications Manager Arnette Ingraham said yesterday that the “oil spill” was a complete misunderstanding.

According to Mrs Ingraham, officials, in preparation for the impending landfall of Hurricane Matthew, began the removal of its oil barriers off the coast of Clifton Pier. She claimed that operation gave the impression that BPL was responding to a spill, when in fact officials were attempting to be proactive with hurricane efforts.

BPL has been heavily criticised for its inability to curb frequent power outages.

In July, Prime Minister Perry Christie admitted that the management of BPL failed to adequately prepare for generation challenges this past summer.

However, Mr Christie did not second-guess his government’s decision to hire PowerSecure to manage BPL.

The American company took over the utility provider’s management earlier this year. The move was touted as one that would lower electricity bills and provide a more reliable power supply.