The Tribune

4.05pm UPDATE: Bahamas Power and Light has released the following statement with regards to the power outages affecting New Providence.

“BPL confirms that at 12:01PM, while performing switching operations at the national stadium, a fault on the transmission network resulted in both our Big Pond Primary Substation and Blue Hills Power Station going offline. The Clifton Pier Power Station remained online supplying western and southwest New Providence. Customers in the East, southeast and central portions of New Providence were off for approximately two hours. We were able to isolate the problem, and our teams worked diligently to return the affected areas to service, beginning with the Shirley Street area around 1:30PM. Restoration efforts continued until just after 2PM, by which time our team was able to restore power to all the areas out of service except Ft. Charlotte and Paradise Island. However, as our teams were working to bring the remaining customers back online, the engines at the Clifton Pier Power Station – which had remained on during the earlier outage – tripped offline, interrupting service for customers in the southwest and western portions of New Providence. At present, power is out for customers in:

· Devonshire Rd., Yorkshire St., Skyline Rd., portion of West Bay, Casaurina Hotel, Shopping Plaza, Delaporte, portion of Sandy Port, Tambearly School
· Cecil Wallace Whitfield Bldg., Bank of Nova Scotia, Commonwealth Bank, British American Bank, general area
· Prospect Ridge, Prospect Ridge Pumping Station, Skyline Lakes, J.F.K. (east of Prospect Ridge to Batelco) portion of Stapledon, Ministry of Works, Batelco, Royal Bank of Canada, Butler & Sands, Caribbean Bottling Co., License Plate Factory, St. Johns College
· Skyline Drive, Skyline Heights
· Coral Harbour
· Lyford Cay
· Harbour Bay Shopping Centre, Swiss Bank, Waterloo, Harbour View Properties, Ebenezer Methodist, Shirley Slope, Retirement Rd. to Hawkins Hill, Oriental Cleaners, Shirley park Ave., Buena Retiro Rd., Mackey Street (Salvation to Madeira St.), Victory St.
· Fox Hill Rd. (north of Prince Charles Dr.), Ferguson & Romerville Subs., St. Marks Baptist, Foxdale Sub., Cox St. Close Sub., Cockburn St. & all side streets, Bernard Rd. (west to Adderley St.), Blueberry Hill, Springfield Road, Portion of Elizabeth Est.
· Yamacraw East Port New Providence, Winton Meadows, Laural Hill Subdivision, John Claridge Subdivision
· Joe Farrington Road, Fox Hill Road South of Yamacraw, Lumumba Road, Yamacraw Beach Estates, Kool Air
· Colony Village, St Andrews Beach Estates, Seagull Gardens

Our teams are presently working feverishly to address the issues in the system and we will continue to update as information is available. We thank you for your patience as we work through this issue.”

2.30pm: Bahamas Power and Light has isolated the problem which caused the power outages currently affecting New Providence and restoration efforts are underway.

“BPL can confirm that at 12:01PM, while performing switching operations at the national stadium we experienced a fault on the transmission network resulting in both Big Pond and Blue Hills going offline,” BPL said in a statement.

“The Clifton Pier Power Station remains online supplying western and southwest New Providence. Customers in the East, southeast and central portions of New Providence are currently off. We have isolated the problem, and our teams are working diligently to return the affected areas to service. Restoration efforts are underway, and we will update as information is available. Thank you for your patience as we work through this issue.”