The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN businesses are absorbing mounting losses and disruptions from prolonged Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) outages, with the Chamber of Commerce yesterday warning that unreliable supply is a persistent burden on the private sector.

Don Williams, Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation (BCCEC) chairman and acting chief executive, said companies have already been forced to adapt to repeated power disruptions.

“Apart from that, businesses have faced the constant power outages,” Mr Williams said. “My office itself, we just faced a power outage yesterday. We faced it again this morning.”

He said the impact on his office was limited to air conditioning interruptions and having to reset breakers, but argued that companies have been dealing with the problem for some time.

Cheryl Cambridge, owner of Cheryl’s Bahamas Taxi & Tours, said a recent all-day outage forced her to send staff home while leaving her business unable to operate normally.

“The current was off all day and I sent my staff home,” Ms Cambridge said. “Yes, I am suffering. I am suffering. And it messed up the router from Aliv. They had to come and change the router.”

She said the outage also disrupted her security system and payment operations, creating additional expenses. “The power was off all friggin day,” Ms Cambridge said. “So my staff had to go home, and I still had to pay them because it ain’t their fault.”

Ms Cambridge said she subsequently spent hundreds of dollars addressing problems caused by the outage, including $100 for an alarm company visit and another $200 to repair her cameras, in addition to paying employees who could not work.

She said the uncertainty surrounding restoration times made it difficult to decide whether staff should remain at the business. “They went home after a couple hours because they were staying, waiting, waiting, and hoping that they come back on,” Ms Cambridge said. “I called them, and they told me they had no idea when it was coming back on. So they went home.”

The disruption is particularly damaging for her business because she operates a tourism company during a period when bookings are increasing. “I’m a tour company and we really losing business like that,” Ms Cambridge said.

She added that repeated outages, combined with rising electricity bills, are putting further pressure on the business. “Many days I am suffering because of it, and then the light bill going up,” Ms Cambridge said. “My light is over $1,000 a month.”

She estimated that she has lost thousands of dollars because power disruptions prevented her from responding to customers quickly enough during the busy fall booking season.

“I’ve lost thousands because we can’t get to answer the e-mail on a timely basis,” Ms Cambridge said. “This is fall season. We’re busy.” She said delayed responses can mean losing customers to competitors.

“When they can’t hear back from us on a timely basis, they go some place else,” Ms Cambridge said.

Kevin Strakan, owner of Native Arts and Crafts on Elizabeth Avenue, said having a generator has helped shield his business from some of the BPL outages, although he has also experienced significant disruptions. “We got generator,” Mr Strakan said. “So it wouldn’t affect me like that.”

However, he said an outage connected to construction for Adrian Fox, Fox Group of Companies head, in the Cable Beach area left his home without business for two days. “And I live in the Cable Beach area, and [Adrian] Fox is putting up a building, and for two days I was shut down,” Mr Strakan said.

He said the disruption was followed by problems with his air conditioning system and continued electrical interruptions. “And for two days things were shut down,” Mr Strakan said. “And then after that, what happened is my air condition blew, and I’m still having problems in the night. There’s cutting in and out.”

The latest complaints echo concerns raised by Pargan Pawar, proprietor of downtown Indian restaurant, Taj Mahal, following a prolonged weekend outage that left his business without electricity for much of Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Mr Pawar previously warned that prolonged outages have fundamentally changed the risk of operating without a generator, noting that outages that once lasted less than an hour can now stretch into days.

The repeated disruptions have also raised broader concerns among businesses about the cost of maintaining operations, protecting equipment and retaining customers when electricity supplies cannot be relied upon.