The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

VARIOUS areas in New Providence were struck by power disruptions yesterday, according to Bahamas Power and Light.

BPL described the issue as “system disturbances” and released a statement apologising for the power outages across the island.

“Bahamas Power and Light Company Ltd (BPL) advises customers that supplies in various areas in New Providence have been interrupted due to a system disturbance,” the brief statement released yesterday afternoon said.

“Our teams are currently investigating the root cause and working to restore power to the affected areas. At this time, restoration estimations are unavailable,” the statement further said.

The “system disturbances” led many on social media to complain.

“Appliances aren’t built to take on inconsistency and neither are customers,” said one consumer.

“Where is your heart in this heat,” another customer added, while a third consumer said: “Ridiculous!”

The disruptions came after BPL CEO Shevonn Cambridge insisted just last week that the reliability of the grid is “pretty high” amid concerns about BPL’s ability to provide consistent service as the fuel surcharge is set to increase next month.

“In terms of the reliability of the grid, it’s actually pretty high at the moment, believe it or not,” Mr Cambridge said at the time.

“It’s just that, and I know a lot of people are concerned about some of the outages that we’ve had in recent times, but those were primarily due to inclement weather.

“We’re a flat island. We’re prone to lightning strikes and as luck would have it as lightning is trying to find its easiest path to ground, the thing that’s sticking up out there is our 100-foot poles and so it’s the thing that attracts the lightning.

“We have protective mechanisms in place that protect against that, such as the lightning rods and lightning arrestors and we have grounds on our infrastructure that are supposed to reroute the lightning to the ground.

“We continue to have the nuisance of people stealing the grounds off our poles. It increases the risk of lightning strikes and the severity of those strikes.”

Earlier this week, BPL issued a statement for planned outages for New Providence for October 12 for six hours and October 14th for four hours due to “LV Turret (equipment) maintenance”, said the statement.