The Tribune

BY LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said Bahamians will soon see the “fruits” of his administration’s efforts to reform the country’s electricity sector, adding that power bills should start to decline this month.

His comments follow public complaints about high electricity costs despite the new Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) rate structure, which took effect on July 1.

Acknowledging the public’s frustrations, Mr Davis said last night: “There was a hit in the bill for July and August but that’s now being corrected. I invite them to look at what is coming for their September bills.”

Mr Davis spoke about his administration’s energy plans while appearing as a guest on ZNS’s new show, “The Rundown” with Clint Watson. The topic was one of several pressing issues he discussed last night.

The prime minister reiterated that his administration inherited BPL’s legacy issues, including ageing infrastructure. However, he said getting the power company back on track has been a key priority for his government.

“We are, as we speak, improving our grid. We are intending to bring, very soon, utility solar microgrids to the country, not just in New Providence, but to the Family Islands, bringing 70 megawatts of solar, 35 megawatts of battery saving, and we are on the way to delivering to the Bahamian people that which we promised,” the prime minister said.

The Davis administration has introduced several initiatives to reform BPL in recent months, including the transfer of New Providence’s electricity grid to Bahamas Grid Company, now 60 percent privately owned.

Island Grid, managed by Eric Pike, will oversee operations, with Pike Electrical providing the necessary workforce, equipment, and resources

Mr Davis said that with the support of its new partners, electricity bills will continue to decrease as BPL’s infrastructure and operations improve,

“As you speak, we are already working on the grid,” he said, “The challenge we have been having is that BPL has been renting generators over the past six (and) seven years. We’re eliminating the rental of generators, and we are now bringing in generators that will be using LNG gas.”

He added that solar initiatives will start within the next several weeks to months.

Regarding inflation, Mr Davis acknowledged that while the issue is “settling”, his government understands that many people are still struggling.

However, he said there’s only so much that can be done.

‘If gas prices go up, what could we do about that?” the prime minister added. “If food prices that we’re importing go up, what could we do about that? What we have done, that we can do for example, is to lower the import duties on imported goods, which we did over the last three years. But we are not seeing that being passed on to the customers.” 

Mr Davis highlighted several initiatives his government has implemented to ease the inflation burden, such as increasing the minimum wage and reducing VAT from 12 percent to 10 percent, among other things. 

“The unfortunate thing is that inflation has eaten most of those savings,” he said, “ and that’s why it appears as though nothing has been done by us, but you can look down the list of what we have done to alleviate the burden of the cost of living that’s been brought on by global matters.”