The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard has accused the Davis administration of dishonesty over its management of the electricity sector after Bahamas Grid Company (BGC) declined to explain the latest power outages affecting New Providence.

Mr Pintard accused the company of following Prime Minister Philip Davis' example by withholding information about the problems facing the utility as electricity disruptions continued to affect residents and force schools to dismiss students early.

BGC said it had no comment on the recent outages.

"The prime minister has refused to be open, honest, transparent about what are the real problems that BPL is experiencing," Mr Pintard said. "Why it is unable to, one, lower costs, two, provide consistent, reliable power?"

His criticism came as Eva Hilton Primary School dismissed students early on Thursday because of plumbing problems resulting from an outage in the surrounding area. Sandilands Primary School also dismissed students early on Monday because of a power failure.

The interruptions have continued into October despite repeated assurances from BPL and the government about efforts to improve the reliability of the electricity system.

Mr Pintard blamed the administration's energy policies, accusing it of awarding contracts without competitive bidding and placing parts of the country's electricity infrastructure under the control of selected private groups.

The Opposition leader argued that the administration had not made sufficient information available for the public to scrutinise its energy agreements.

"They have been dishonest from the break, from the time they came to office," Mr Pintard said.

He also accused Mr Davis of incompetence and questioned his handling of the agreements, saying their full terms had not been made available for examination.

"This is a Philip Davis and his administration’s problem, and the grid company is just their agents that are executing a very bad plan at the moment," he said.

Mr Pintard has repeatedly challenged the government's electricity reforms, including its arrangements for private sector participation in power generation and management of New Providence's transmission and distribution network.

In April, The Tribune reported that Island Grid had withdrawn from its management arrangement with BGC, which oversees a $130m upgrade of the transmission and distribution system. The development prompted Mr Pintard to demand clarity about the future of the government's energy reforms.

He also questioned the administration in August over its earlier announcement that 95 percent of critical transmission and distribution upgrades had been completed, arguing that the claim was difficult to reconcile with continuing power failures.

Meanwhile, BPL confirmed on Thursday that electricity had been restored to Great Guana Cay, Abaco, after repeated equipment failures and faults in subsea cables left parts of the community without power for several days.

The company said the island's standby generator suffered a major electrical failure on August 26 and was removed for repairs.

On October 2, a feeder at Matt Lowe's Cay tripped, with troubleshooting identifying a subsea cable fault between Matt Lowe's Cay and Man-O-War Cay. Electricity was restored using a generator on Man-O-War Cay.

However, that generator developed mechanical problems on October 4, limiting electricity supply to Guana Cay.

The Kent Smith area remained without power for approximately three days because its three-phase transformer required three functioning incoming phases.

BPL said crews located and repaired the cable fault around midday on October 7, restoring electricity to the affected area.

Hours later, at approximately 7.20pm, the Matt Lowe's Cay feeder tripped again. A separate subsea cable fault between Scotland Cay and Guana Cay left the entire community without electricity overnight.

Repairs were underway by 11am on Thursday, and supply was restored around 12.50pm.

BPL said a long-term project to install reinforced subsea cables was in the final approval stage under Tender 1326/26.

Once the purchase order is issued, the company expects to mobilise the contractor, with installation projected to take four to six weeks after work begins.

The utility apologised to Great Guana Cay residents and businesses for the repeated interruptions and the difficulties they caused.