The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ENERGY Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis insisted yesterday that Bahamas Power and Light has enough generation capacity to meet summer demand, even as Long Island MP Andre Rollins accused her of misleading Parliament after widespread outages left Bahamians “sweating” over the weekend.

For the summer period, Mrs Coleby-Davis said BPL is preparing for peak demand of 300MW in New Providence, 27MW in Abaco and 20.5MW in Eleuthera.

She said BPL currently has 340MW of installed capacity in New Providence, a figure expected to increase to 385MW by the month’s end. Abaco has 36MW of installed capacity, while Eleuthera currently has 24MW.

Eleuthera’s capacity is projected to increase to 26.5MW by the end of July and 29MW by August, she said.

Concerning Grand Bahama, she said officials expect peak summer demand to reach 60MW, up from 56MW last year.

She said she has been advised that sufficient generation coverage is in place for demand.

Her defence of the country’s preparedness for the summer came during a fiery budget debate that drew jeers from the opposition and renewed scrutiny of the country’s electricity supply as BPL pushes through major infrastructure upgrades in New Providence.

Mrs Coleby-Davis said the energy sector was moving in the right direction, though she acknowledged it was experiencing “growing pains”.

Dr Rollins rejected that assessment, pointing to recent outages across the country.

“The reality is this past weekend, we had Bahamians sweating,” he said. “Like Leslie Miller said, Bahamian people were sweating because lights were off in New Providence for more than 24 hours in certain locations.”

He also cited what he called “embarrassing” blackouts in Cat Island that disrupted the island’s rake and scrape festival.

“That is not progress,” Dr Rollins said. “We are regressing under the leadership of the member for Elizabeth.”

Mrs Coleby-Davis pushed back, saying outages caused by faults or other systematic issues were not the result of political decisions.

She questioned whether anyone truly believed BPL wanted customers to be without electricity, noting the company earns no revenue when the power is out.

Mrs Coleby-Davis said some outages are occurring as BPL carries out essential work under its summer readiness programme.

“In some areas, electrical loads that are normally shared between two circuits are temporarily being supported by just one while construction is ongoing,” she said. “This added demand can strain sections of the network and heighten the likelihood of interruptions.”

Mrs Coleby-Davis compared the situation to renovating a home, saying careful planning can minimise inconvenience but cannot eliminate every challenge involved in rebuilding critical infrastructure while maintaining service.

She acknowledged public frustration but said BPL does not take the disruptions lightly.

She said crews are working around the clock to safely manage the grid while carrying out modernisation efforts.

“While some believe that these challenges are unique to our shores, the honest reality is that we are not alone,” she added. “As I speak in there today, several US states and some provinces in Canada are experiencing periods of grid stress due to extreme heat waves. To be clear, knowing that we are not alone does not excuse us from our duty, rather it should motivate our energy companies to work smarter and in a strategic manner.”