The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net’

A Chamber of Commerce director has voiced her concerned about Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) being left in limbo during the election season, with no Rate Reduction Bond (RRB) and no execution of the Shell North America power plant deal.

Debbie Deal, head of the Chamber’s energy and environment division, told Tribune Business questioned why having chosen to partner with Shell North America “nothing has happened”.

“Now the first thing you have to look at when something goes wrong at BPL will be the management, because they are supposed to have a mission statement that guides the direction of the company. So with the election on how, what is their plan?” she asked.

Ms Deal was responding to comments made by Desmond Bannister, Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for BPL, outside of cabinet office yesterday when he predicted the governing Free National Movement will return to office after the September 16 election and that “BPL is still working” despite the government having several amendments to make on the RRB Bill that needs to be tabled in parliament and the Shell North America arrangement still not executed.

The highly anticipated RRB is needed so BPL can raise the funds necessary to pay off old debt and simultaneously fix the company’s Transmission and Distribution network. The RRB has been stalled for over two years now, with the legislation to facilitate the RRB being tabled in the House of Assembly in November, 2019. However, since that time the RRB has been pulled back for further amendments by the government, leaving the Bill in limbo.

With the dissolution of parliament, all Bills that were tabled and not yet passed would have to be brought back to the parliament as new Bills.

Casting further doubt that BPL will ever be able to raise the projected $535m through the RRB, Ms Deal questioned the likelihood of an investor or group of investors lending BPL money to pay off old bills that BPL never showed a capacity to be able to do in its history. “

That will never happen,” she said with regard to investors lending BPL anything at this rate.

“People are not just going to throw $535m out to somebody that didn’t have the decency to pay off at least $400m of it years ago when it was supposed to be paid. I just think it’s a shame that they haven’t done so.”

The Shell North America power plant deal is also been held up after having initially being promoted by the company as a deal that will permanently fix power generation at the Clifton Pier Power Plant.

Ms Deal said: “BPL has so many balls up in the air and none of them have come to fruition.

“They could have, very easily, when they chose Shell and when everybody was moaning and groaning about he fact that they came out with two addendums with the actual RFP (request for proposals), it basically showed there have been conversations prior to the RFP coming out.

“If they were smart, they just would have changed the RFP instead of adding the addendums that showed the conversations that happened. So it’s like they could have changed at that point, but we said why doesn’t BPL just put it out to bid again because they already did back-up generation with Aggreko to replace that and then the other one would have been if they wanted a strategic partner.

“BPL needs somebody who is going to come in and do all of this and get paid from the profits and basically take over running the whole show. That was the Shell arrangement but I don’t think they want it anymore, which is just ridiculous.”