The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

WORKS Minister Desmond Bannister said Bahamas Power and Light will have to hold accountable those responsible for the recent island-wide power outage that has sparked concerns about the company’s ability to provide reliable electricity this summer.

Before a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr Bannister was asked if he is concerned about BPL’s ability to provide stable power this summer in light of several recent outages, including an island-wide outage on May 20.

“I have specific concerns,” he said.

“They are not load shedding incidents. BPL is going to have to hold the persons who cause them responsible. Where persons have caused them, BPL is going to have to hold them responsible. I expect that the CEO of BPL or persons responsible in BPL will issue the appropriate releases.”

Mr Bannister did not elaborate.

However, Wärtsilä, the company which has an agreement with BPL to maintain and operate the Clifton Pier Station A Power Plant, released a statement on Friday blaming the power outage on an operational glitch.

The company said: “At around 2.30am on May 20, an operational glitch at the Clifton Pier Station A resulted in generating units going offline. This event triggered an island-wide outage on New Providence. Wärtsilä together with BPL personnel worked swiftly to remedy the situation. Power was restored to the first group of customers at 3.15am and by 6.30am, power was restored to approximately 95 percent of the customer base on New Providence.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconveniences caused as a result of this outage. Although this kind of occurrence is rare, be assured that Wärtsilä is already in the process of investigating this matter to determine the root cause of the failure with a goal of making sure that there would not be a re-occurrence.”

Last night, BPL issued a brief statement on the matter and reiterated Wärtsilä’s comments.

“BPL takes note of the efforts of Wärtsilä to investigate and identify the cause of the incident, and the station operator’s assurance that the operational improvements are underway to ensure this type of event is unlikely to be repeated,” the power company said.

BPL added that it has received the results of the Wärtsilä investigation and is conducting its own due diligence for the sake of completeness and transparency.