AIRPORT IS HIT BY LATEST POWER CUT

As of Saturday, August 2, 2014

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

DARKNESS shrouded the Lynden Pindling International Airport’s three terminals for a short time yesterday as in-house generators failed to activate after a Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) service disruption which affected several areas of New Providence.

The United States departures terminal, international arrivals and the domestic and international departures terminals, experienced a loss of electricity for up to 15 minutes according to Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) officials. However, airport workers stationed at domestic departures said there was no power for around 20 minutes.

NAD spokesperson Shonalee Johnson said: “We are still trying to determine why power wasn’t immediately restored and exactly how long it took for the generators to kick in. The first terminal to come on was the US departures terminal and the loss of power happened at 2.08 pm.

“All systems have been restored, except for the baggage system which had to be done manually for a bit.” She was unable to say whether or not the interruption caused flight delays.

Arnette Ingraham, BEC’s public relations officer, explained that an engine at Blue Hills tripped leaving customers in areas including Fire Trail, Carmicheal Road, East Street South, Pinewood Gardens, Market and Palmetto Streets, Marshall Road, Sea Breeze and Imperial Park without power. She said customers were inconvenienced for about 45 minutes when electricity went off at around 1.45pm.

“One of the engines at Blue Hills tripped,” she told the Big T. “That engine operates the under frequency, which means that it dropped the load to protect the system and that caused a number of areas to go off. It was not a generator challenge. It was just a disturbance in the system that could have been caused for any number of reasons. We won’t know today what happened but it is being investigated.”

This latest power outage same after thousands of BEC customers were left without electricity for more than eight hours on Monday because of “generator challenges” at the Blue Hills plant. It interrupted the supply to 50 per cent of customers in eastern, western and some parts of central New Providence.

Guests at Atlantis on Paradise Island were also inconvenienced for some time due to the cuts, with power not being restored to parts of the hotel until 4pm.

According to BEC sources, a cable blew between the Big Pond substation and the Blue Hills Power Station causing the initial power outages in eastern and southern New Providence.

TalRussell 9 years, 8 months ago

Calling the Morgue. Some Comrade Official needs take peek at the maintenance records to see if they were running tests to see if the standby generators were actually capable of switching-on in case there was a Airport power failure. Given BEC's darkness record it's not like a power failure was a remote possibility? Atlantis generators don't kick-in dark and now the Airport's generators don't function? What will happen if your ass is on the operating table at PMH or Doctors Hospital?

TheMadHatter 9 years, 8 months ago

This sort of thing happens in Haiti all the time. As we are moving toward transforming the Bahamas into the Northern Haitian Islands, it is simply something we must get used to.

TheMadHatter

wave 9 years, 8 months ago

And you voted in your worthless PLP Sickie slash General!

wearedone 9 years, 8 months ago

The airport is ran by Bahamians. Leased by a Canadian company but ran by Bahamians.

wearedone 9 years, 8 months ago

The four guys pictured are no longer here. They were around for about 80% of the construction and then left. All day to day operations are ran by Bahamians.

TalRussell 9 years, 8 months ago

Hey you overpaid hotel and airport managers I thinks it's time you guys go to talk with hire and my Comrade "Honda Generator" Chicken Shack Lady, as your "lights always on" consultant. Comrade Wave true we have cartoon character as BEC's Pot cake but you would think places like hotels and the airports would have standby generators that will kick-in when they are experiencing a major power failure. Good Lord Almighty Comrade even my friend with her little chicken shack has a reliable Honda generator always at the ready to kick-in.

Cobalt 9 years, 8 months ago

Once again..... we are faced with the stark reality of Bahamian incompetence. In over 40 years both FNM and PLP have failed to produce efficient, effective energy solutions. Failure after failure after failure.....regression after regression after regression..... lie after lie after lie.

And as our brightest minds continue leave our country for other parts of the world, a huge void is left in their wake. Our country is a leaderless, rudderless, powerless, ineffective melting-pot of incompetence and ineptitude. We have failed Bahamas. Our governments have failed.... and we the people have failed.

TalRussell 9 years, 8 months ago

Comrade Cobalt, pre Pindling black Bahamalanders with help few thousand lick-da-brush Comrades decided it was time to rid themselves of the UBP mentality to stop taking care of white peoples homes, children and washing they floors, draws and things. Now, all colours need to rid themselves of they's Christie and Hubert mentalities. First, we have remember, we only adopted the Christie and Hubert narratives, not born them.

sheeprunner12 9 years, 8 months ago

Now the latest news is that NAD CEO wants to build a hotel at the SLOP Airport ........ so NAD is going to compete with Bahamar and Atlantis now????????

The Tribune