Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis toured the Clifton Pier and Baillou Hills power stations on Sunday. (BIS Photos/Yontalay Bowe)
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis toured Bahamas Power & Light’s plants on Sunday in a private visit and declared unreliable power in New Providence a “crisis” for Bahamian families.
Media was not notified of the visit in advance and no media was present other than government information services. The first notification to the media was in the form of a late-night press release, and there was no opportunity to put questions to Dr Minnis about BPL’s problems.
Other top BPL and government officials have notably avoided describing BPL’s generation struggles as a crisis in recent weeks.
“To the energy community, this may not fit the definition of crisis but for Bahamian families that can’t cook breakfast, fill their gas tanks, buy groceries or even charge a cell phone, this is a crisis,” he said in a press release from the Office of the Prime Minister.
“I understand the pain, I understand your anger and I understand the deep frustration of Bahamians throughout New Providence.”
According to the press statement, Dr Minnis was briefed by BPL CEO Whitney Heastie and Works Minister Desmond Bannister on the “progress of being returned to full service.”
“The prime minister strongly re-emphasised that BPL is doing all it can to fix the problems long-term, and is currently aggressively executing a plan to mitigate the shortfall in generation to ensure relief is provided to residents as soon as possible,” the statement said. “Prime Minister Minnis reiterated that his government is committed to doing whatever is necessary to alleviate this problem. BPL is working to address the serious load shedding issues and has started to release a daily fact sheet in its ongoing effort to better communicate the extent of the problems and the work being carried out to return the system to normal. The daily report details the day’s outcomes and provides updates on anticipated issues and progress for the following day.”
BPL’s daily fact sheet yesterday reported a 32 megawatt shortfall with average power outages lasting two hours and 47 minutes.
However, some residents complained of suffering multiple three-hour long power cuts.
A 30 megawatt shortage and three hour power outages are expected today, according to the fact sheet.
Last week Dr Minnis said a six-man team of specialists from Philadelphia Gear has come to the island and has been working on returning an additional 20 megawatts of power to service at the Baillou Hills Power Plant.
BPL indicated that two units at Baillou Hill, representing 44 megawatts of unavailable power, are being worked on.
“The local and international teams continued work overnight on the first unit at BHPS rated for 23 megawatts,” BPL said. “Work on alignment of components of this unit, which suffered a failure of an internal mechanical component, was advanced overnight, with the final case of alignment expected to be completed sometime (Sunday). This would allow coping to commence, which refers to the assembly of the different components of the unit. Once coupling is completed then work can begin on testing and recommissioning.”
“The second unit at BHPS rated at 21 megawatts is significantly closer to being back to service. The local, certified diesel specialist leading the repair work is due to complete his work (Sunday), focusing on sealing the replacement engine, which will allow the replacement engine to be placed in the appropriate configuration with the unit.”
The first and second BHPS units are on track to be back in operation on August 30 and September 6 respectively, BPL said.
Comments
JackArawak 5 years, 2 months ago
if a stitch in time saves nine, by my estimate BEC has about 27 stitches to take. A little late Minnis, ship done sailed
tell_it_like_it_is 5 years, 2 months ago
Oh the PM offering sympathy?
Well that's good, cause I ready to have a funeral service for BPL and the FNM at the same time if they don't turn this garbage around!!!
It's so ironic that the day the PM was there, was the day my power was out the most in one day. I thought you put on ya best when the head honchos come around????
Chucky 5 years, 2 months ago
Could have huge generators here in a day from Florida if they wanted.
Obviously it’s not enough of crisis to bother
moncurcool 5 years, 2 months ago
The problem BPL is facing now in New Providence, Grand Bahama faced 10 years ago. Abaco faced the same issue before the new plant was built. What a lot of people really do not understand, is that the equipment at BPL in New Providence is extremely old. The new plant that is coming on stream will deal with all of those issues.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 2 months ago
And what you really do not understand, moncurcool, is that the existing plant equipment did not become old over night and was well known to be old before our dimwitted and most incompetent Minnis became PM in May 2017. Stop making excuses for our PM's obvious ineptitude which, quite frankly, now constitutes nothing but gross negiigence on his part. Minnis was focused on all of the wrong things at the time he became PM. When he took office as PM he was obsessed with only one thing: conducting costly and time consuming investigagtion after investigation of the previous Christie-led PLP government. And so far nothing stolen by the previous government has been recovered and no one of any great importance to the ripping off of our country has gone to jail. Truth be told, Minnis is an abject failure as PM and has no knowledge at all about what it takes to properly govern a nation for the benefit of its people. The man is clueless on any given day as what direction he himself is headed - east? west? - so how can he possibly lead our nation in the right direction? God only knows how this man ever became a medical doctor. We would be better off as a nation if Minnis spent all of his time drinking tea with his wife and her friends on the public's dime.
Chucky 5 years, 2 months ago
“Minnis is an abject failure as PM and has no knowledge at all about what it takes to properly govern a nation for the benefit of its people. ”
Your assumption, that Minnis, or any other elected leader in the “free world” has any interest in governing “for the benefit of the people” is gravely flawed. There is a pattern of governance found in the “free world”, it’s always the same, it’s not now, and never was for the people.
Once you come to terms with reality, it’s vastly easier to understand what’s going on
If you don’t agree, take on the challenge and tell us about a government “working for the people”.
You any most people have it all wrong. Governments are not incompetent, their goals are just different that what they say and what the populous expects. Calling them incompetent is much better for them, than to be recognized for the corrupt group they are.
Consider the actions from the pre supposition that they are in fact completely corrupt, trying to enrich themselves and their cronies, and you will find them and their actions and rhetoric quite brilliant.
concernedcitizen 5 years, 2 months ago
We did not get here in the last 2 years ,,its been 40 years of not being able to supply reliable energy at a reasonable cost .Minis and the FNM ordered 95 million dollars worth of new generators , the most ever spent , it takes time for them to be built ,get here ,and be installed .In the mean time you have certain union leaders and their henchmen that know their days r numbered if the FNM gets Shell in , burning and destroying equipment ..
Chucky 5 years, 2 months ago
“Minnis is an abject failure as PM and has no knowledge at all about what it takes to properly govern a nation for the benefit of its people. ” Your assumption, that Minnis, or any other elected leader in the “free world” has any interest in governing “for the benefit of the people” is gravely flawed. There is a pattern of governance found in the “free world”, it’s always the same, it’s not now, and never was for the people. Once you come to terms with reality, it’s vastly easier to understand what’s going on If you don’t agree, take on the challenge and tell us about a government “working for the people”. You any most people have it all wrong. Governments are not incompetent, their goals are just different that what they say and what the populous expects. Calling them incompetent is much better for them, than to be recognized for the corrupt group they are. Consider the actions from the pre supposition that they are in fact completely corrupt, trying to enrich themselves and their cronies, and you will find them and their actions and rhetoric quite brilliant
geostorm 5 years, 2 months ago
I dare any of you above, if you think you can do a better job fixing our country to take a shot at leadership, run for office! It's pretty annoying to read every day how the government needs to do this or the government needs to do that and this one is incompetent or the next one is incompetent.
For God's sake people, you can not fix 40 years worth of neglect, abuse and corruption in 2 years! I don't care who is elected, putting the Bahamas on a path of success, will not be achieved in 2 or even 5 years. What makes it even harder is our mindset as a people. We would rather argue and degrade people if they do not represent our party colors instead of doing our part in contributing to our country's success. We are our own worst enemies, all we do is complain and criticize.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 2 months ago
You don't have to be a leader to recognize one.
John 5 years, 2 months ago
Ignorance is a bytch err bliss
Chucky 5 years, 2 months ago
The problem is that it’s a complete system. An outlier who is not in the system cannot get elected.
The whole team works together, big business and rich people as donors, media, political parties etc. At best an outlier can become an independent, but we all know it takes more. And even if a new party could get a majority, which could never happen, new style legislation could never get passed. Remember it’s hard to get rid of appointed and unelected senators. Most importantly, one does not need to be an elected member to call a spade a spade.
TalRussell 5 years, 2 months ago
The good news colony's populaces at-large is we beloved Comrade Queen, does not have sit around wait the one big power that the Guv'nah General has to be activated from atop Mount Fitzwilliam, yes, no ... the Queen can at any time bypass her Guv'nah General to fire the prime minister, or the entire governing crown ministers appointed cabinet Imperialists red shirts....even if only in limited circumstances can the Queen, constitutionally issue Her Majesty's royal pink slip or slips.... question is, does crisis at BPL, sufficiently fit constitutionally slam dung PM out PMO, yes, no .... If not, what about PM's pink shirt ....
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 2 months ago
Late again. What is his job exactly?
TalRussell 5 years, 2 months ago
Comrade prime minister Minnis is reliving his childhood - except the Doc spends his days up in PMO where he sits he self in corner dreaming up all kinds weird imaginary stories in he head to then go downstairs practice his material on tourists roaming around in public square below - before traveling about colony spin his tales unsuspecting populaces out islanders, yes, no .... You can't just make this up how often american tourists will asks taxi drivers - why is your colony's PM, so Trump-like ....... Our colony's tourists are Minnis's, Fox News ....
SP 5 years, 2 months ago
We cannot expect to fix 40 years of corruption in 5 years. However, we do expect to have those PLP & FNM's responsible held accountable for destroying our country!
These people absconded with tons of the peoples' money and should be brought to justice just like anyone else.
John 5 years, 2 months ago
The FNM running scared. Even the most die hard FNM supporters has had enough of BPL and its disruptive and costly blackouts. Businesses are suffering old people and young people are terrified and suffering. The sick and bedridden are miserable and getting bedsores and heatstroke. And if Minnis had taken the stand he’s taking now four or five months ago the situation will never gotten this bad. And so now it’s a life or death crisis situation for Minnis and the entire FNM government.
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