The Tribune

WITH more than 12,000 New Providence customers without electricity, Bahamas Power and Light Company Limited has doubled the manpower on New Providence but also its fleet in its effort to complete restoration as soon as possible, the company said yesterday.

BPL, with the help of local contractors, CARILEC teams, and PowerSecure, has an aggressive plan to be close to full restoration by the end of the week, the company said. BPL expects that past this date, only a small number of customers may still be affected and the company will continue its aggressive campaign to reach 100 per cent restoration.

Yesterday morning, 24 utility vehicles arrived in the capital from the US to assist BPL in restoring supply across the island. BPL’s management company, PowerSecure, brought in 20 utility vehicles including pick-up trucks, bucket trucks, and digger derricks to assist its road crews in completing work in several communities.

Also arriving Tuesday morning were four BPL vehicles which included three bucket trucks and one digger derrick. A bucket truck and the digger derrick were sent to Andros on Tuesday afternoon to assist crews there in their restoration efforts. The other two bucket trucks will be added to BPL’s permanent fleet of vehicles in New Providence.

“These vehicles are an important part of our plan to get close to 100 per cent restoration within the next few days,” BPL CEO Pamela Hill said in a press release. “Our BPL team with the help of local and international partners have substantially restored supply to many of our customers; however, we still have more than 12,000 New Providence customers without power.

“We are using the most aggressive approach we have available to us to expedite power restoration for these consumers. Our plan is to deploy these vehicles in earnest across the island and saturate the areas where we still have some challenges to get the power back on as quickly as we can,” she said.

BPL said it had originally anticipated that the utility vehicles would have been on island sooner; however, adverse weather conditions, including 9-foot seas, prevented the ship from leaving port in the US.

“Our goal was to get the vehicles here not only in a timely manner but while ensuring the safety of the sailing crew and the cargo,” said PowerSecure President of Utility Infrastructure Ronnie Brannen. “Even without the trucks, our crews worked around the clock restoring supply to different parts of the island. Now that the trucks are here, we can work more efficiently to get the power back on to those customers who lost supply after Hurricane Matthew.”