Bahamas Power and Light headquarters.
By FARRAH JOHNSON
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
TECHNICAL difficulties recently forced Bahamas Power and Light to leave customers in the western area of New Providence without power for hours.
A statement published on the company’s Facebook page Monday evening advised the public that technicians had been dispatched to investigate the issue. Still, the company did not explain the exact cause behind the incident.
Speaking to The Tribune, Quincy Parker, BPL’s director of communications, said the technical issues that caused power outages in North and West Westridge, Sandy Port, Delaporte and the western portion of Theodore Lane, were caused by a “short in a circuit” on Munnings Road.
He said the problem has since been addressed.
When asked if the public could expect any more disruptions in the foreseeable future, Mr Parker said that was “ impossible” one to answer.
“We are not expecting disruptions, but we cannot predict the circumstances of everything,” he said.
Still, he insisted the company is prepared.
“We have sufficient generation in our transmission and distribution network which is sufficiently strong, and we are prepared for any eventuality, but we cannot promise that there will be no interruptions.”
During the outage, disgruntled customers in affected areas took to the comment section of the company’s initial statement to voice their complaints.
“This was not what I had in mind when it came to warm wishes for the holidays from BPL,” one user quipped.
“This is the second time for the evening that the electricity is off. Just plain lousy!” another one added.
Other Facebook users pointed out that despite BPL’s new power plant, the company was still battling issues keeping the lights on.
“It’s been two hours and we’re still in the dark. Those new power plants are working wonderfully! Great job!” one remarked.
“Probably that brand new power plant you just bought. Nice work,” another asserted.
When asked whether this specific incident was related to Station A in anyway, Mr Parker insisted that was not the case.
“Last night’s disruption was not related to the start-up of Station A,” he insisted.
Earlier this week the company revealed its new multimillion power plant had been brought online.
The station is expected to boost energy and price security and increase reliability.
Comments
alfalfa 5 years ago
Power was off and on three times between 6 and eleven thirty pm on Tuesday evening, in the West end of the island. No prior notification from BPL, and no advice to shut off breakers to prevent appliance damage from the dips and surges as power went off and on. As far as I am concerned we have a new generation plant; which John Q Public will pay for to the tune of 193 million I believe. The same crappy, unreliable service continues, with the same b--ls--t explanations. No change. Just higher levies on our Bill's. Merry Christmas.
tell_it_like_it_is 5 years ago
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Sickened 5 years ago
Please tell us when you are turning on these new generators because I want to make sure everything in my home is unplugged, that the main breaker is off and that every fuse on the panel switch is in the off position. I DON'T TRUST YOU!!!!
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years ago
And not a peep about this matter from Tweedle-Dumb Minnis and his grossly incompetent Minister of Works, Desmond Bannister. Since May 2017 these two have exhibited time and time again nothing but lip service and great arrogance towards the vast majority of Bahamians. They are truly dismissive of the concerns of the vast majority of the Bahamian people, as they busily go about selfishly taking care of what's financially important to themselves and their favoured cronies.
The_Oracle 5 years ago
It is blatantly obvious these Idiots live in some alternate reality unsupported by their current (no pun intended) reality. Generation is but one aspect of their failure: the other is transmission and distribution. The Generation they put online to cope with demand, the more often their transmission will fail. Simple stuff but obviously beyond their sense of rationale. There are some pretty basic fundamentals of power distribution these guys pray are never brought up as well, a minimum of three in which they through their neglect have failed at. It also seems they are taking the supposed regulator down the toilet with them, as they are unaware of these basics.
ThisIsOurs 5 years ago
"caused by a “short in a circuit” on Munnings Road."
Munnings road again???
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