Bahamas Power and Light headquarters.
By EARYEL BOWLEG
Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
WORKS and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears said there would “possibly” be more load shedding this summer.
However, Bahamas Power & Light CEO Shevonn Cambridge said some recent outages have wrongly been classified as load sharing.
Their comments came after BPL confirmed on Monday that it started load-shedding exercises because of challenges to several power stations in New Providence.
During an Office of the Prime Minister press briefing, Mr Sears said the generation challenges result from “band-aid” solutions to problems that require significant investments.
“In the absence of what experts estimate to be $500m plus injection, BPL continues to work extremely hard to keep its ageing infrastructure afloat albeit with intermittent challenges on both its generation and transmission and distribution networks,” Mr Sears said.
“The question that looms the largest in the minds of the Bahamian public is whether there will be more load shedding this summer. The shortest answer and most direct answer is possibly. However, the company is putting all its resources behind preventing that from happening.”
Mr Sears said that while New Providence’s generation demand has never exceeded 263MW, peak summer load may exceed 270MW –– more than BPL has operable.
“On the surface, it appears that BPL has sufficient generation to meet the peak demand,” he said. “However, we are talking really about machines. Just like any appliance or machinery we have in our homes or businesses, the potential exists for them to break down. The loss of more than one engine at any given time puts BPL in a precarious position where it may not be able to meet the demand of the entire island.”
“BPL already relies on rental generation that contributes 83MW per hour to the total output for New Providence, and by the end of next week, an additional 33MW will be added to the rental generation fleet. Also, plans to return a BPL 20MW unit to service early next month are progressing satisfactorily, which will give the company a total of 53MW of additional generation capacity of its current standing.”
Officials anticipate that by mid-July, BPL will have almost 323MW in available generation capacity, which Mr Sears said is “well beyond” what will be required in normal circumstances during the peak period.
However, he said rental units are not a long-term solution.
Former BPL chairman Donovan Moxey said in 2019 that seven new multi-fuel engines at one of BPL’s plants would bring “an end to load shedding” and that the facility would “help make load shedding a thing of the past”.
Asked about this, Mr Cambridge answered: “So the Wartsila engines are an interesting thing and the easiest way to put it is that we got new engines, but those engines are being supported by older auxiliaries.”
“And so just like everything else, you’re about as strong as your weakest link and so now the plan is to try and upgrade the auxiliaries that are supporting those Wartsila engines.”
“Over the last two weeks or whatever, I’m sure as many of you would realise, we had a lot of weather activity, and we had a number of lightning strikes as well as other things. Some of the outages that have been classified as load shedding from the public view are not load shedding,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, I saw a copy of our plan maintenance schedule being circulated on certain media sources as load shedding. You have outages that will occur as a result of weather-related events. We still have third-party caused outages that occur — people running into poles and the like. And then we have our planned maintenance.”
Comments
hrysippus 1 year, 4 months ago
The Honourable Sears has sometimes mis-spoke, … . Treating accountability as just a joke. .
The pothole ministry, which he serves, .. .. . Gets no less praise than it deserves. . . . .. As gubmint buildings crumble away, . .. .. Some are pleased that it’s a brand due nay, . .. . Contracts and shingles enrich these clowns, . .. While despairing masses crowd shanty towns, , ,,, . But not worry; we have the Bahamas Games; . ….. To distract the votes with foolish claims. . .. . . If for ten days work you charge a million, . .. … It nussa be worthwhile being a Fill Up minion. Sigh.
Dawes 1 year, 4 months ago
All this shows is how we have had Government after Government of useless individuals run us. And we are the idiots for still voting them back in
B_I_D___ 1 year, 4 months ago
Scary to think that the momentum we had with the Wartsila engines coming online has been totally lost and wasted essentially and we are pretty much right back to where we started.
trueBahamian 1 year, 4 months ago
Are we fallback to where we started? Are we really to believe these Wartsila engines were brought in and the engineers at BPL and for Wartsila combined only discovered a challenge WAY after these engines were already in use? These guys are up to something. An engineer won't take that long to figure out things won't work well. If you put a new engine in a 30 year old car and don't change the other parts, you know exactly what to expect. So, either everybody knew and kept quiet or the guys are lying now. Either way you cut it a lot of people need to be fired and politicians involved need to be punished.
trueBahamian 1 year, 4 months ago
This doesn't make sense. The engineers who would have been there at the time the Wartsila engines were brought in would have known what challenges existed with installing them and if they didn't project this beforehand, it would have been noticed shortly after installation. Some th ung smells off here. BPL boasted thatbload shedding would be a thing of the past. Now, suddenly, "Oh, oh, we can't guarantee you have power throughout the summer." Look, someone is playing games here. Also, does anyone realize under the FNM, there was an agreement signed with Shell North America for the supply of power. The date for that to start has long passed but you didn't hear a PEP from anyone. Now these arithmatricks guys all of a sudden see an issue with keeping the lights on. This is in the back end of we need to increase electricity bills because of increase in fuel prices. Does anyone realize that fuel prices have dropped considerably for awhile now. The futures contracts th e FNM signed would. It have all been used up when the PLP took office. Prices have been declining for a long time. So, which months did they really have a high fuel costs. It seems the trend here for BPL is to come up with an excuse to fleece the population. Where is the money really going? Logic doesn't line up to what they are saying.
ThisIsOurs 1 year, 4 months ago
Ive noticed this fuel price analysis in the newspapers and on radio.
People just report whatever no sense the gas dealers put out. Oh gas is now 16 dollars "inflation, you know...". Not one ounce of effort to actually investigate whats really going on with prices globally and if it has any impact here. Literally 2 days after OPEC announced theyd be cutting fuel production the Tribune had Bastian reporting that some dealers had "already" raised prices and the reporter couldnt out 2 and 2 together that there was no corellation or basis for the price increase
You are right, BEC says whatever because weve shown we will swallow ehatever
trueBahamian 1 year, 4 months ago
Lol. When OPEC initially announced their cut prices didn't spike. If I recall it dropped. The funny thing was they didn't get the demand they expected from China. So, although lower supply, there was much lower demand. Economics won that round. I guess the reporter also didn't hear the China part of the equation either.
Bahamianbychoice 1 year, 4 months ago
I hope this government final takes a stand for the people and has an inquiry. The lack of internal controls and oversight under the previous CEO/Board is shocking. The amount of corruption and nepotism that happened is criminal. A proper governance and financial audit is due...and by a firms outside this country....
trueBahamian 1 year, 4 months ago
Say this government?! Lol. All of them are bad. When this government lies they need to make sure the available data in the global community doesn't easily contradict their BS.
benniesun 1 year, 4 months ago
From Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
intellect: the ability to understand and to think in an intelligent way.
acuity: the ability to hear, see, or think accurately and clearly
foresight: the ability to judge correctly what is going to happen in the future and plan your actions based on this knowledge
Back in the day electric machinery were jolly and robust and ran thro' hell and high water with nary a complaint. In contrast, today's replacements are finicky and cantankerous and act up if they barely sense thunder in the distance. And with each new upgrade/replacement the machines get more complex and more cranky - not to mention that they are designed to give way to the next generation (obsolescence). This trend was well underway from the 1960's. We are the suffering victims, beause our so called leaders (mangerial and political) lack proper foresight and intellectual acuity.
trueBahamian 1 year, 4 months ago
Are they lacking or are they playing games? Do you believe a bunch of engineers from BPL and Wartsila say together and combined could not figure out how this will play out? The Wartsila guys would knkw their engines better than anyone else and the guys at BPL.know the crap they have there. So, it seems to be a game being played here. A very costly game. Could there be issues? Yes, but I believe they are blowing up a picture to justify spending. Like the old saying goes, follow the money. Once you do this you will understand clearly what is happening.
rosiepi 1 year, 4 months ago
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2022/dec…
ThisIsOurs 1 year, 4 months ago
Maybe all Warsilla cared about was a pay cheque, who knows?
And maybe all the minister cared about was a separate pay cheque.
A new minister in position now, time for someone else to get paid
trueBahamian 1 year, 4 months ago
Lol. Everybody getting money from the poor, working class and middle class. Some of the wealthy and the well connected are the ones with the highest electricity usage but are the ones who don't pay. So, those who can least afford pay for those who can and also have to pay the premium for those in power to abuse the system.
ThisIsOurs 1 year, 4 months ago
And every new deal to "not" fix the problem is a chance for someone else to get a pay day... This story been going on for decades so far the US only spill the beans on the insurance salesman bribe taker
ExposedU2C 1 year, 4 months ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Socrates 1 year, 4 months ago
its the same old story with things government related.. neglect forever, then speak about it like it all suddenly occurred, like national insurance for example.. all these small countries have perfected kicking hard issues down the road.. whatz next, the big govt pension obligation?
SP 1 year, 4 months ago
I wonder if the real issue is that they forgot to factor in the amount of power needed for the new port.
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