The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday reassured Freeport businesses and residents that the government was still talking to the island’s electricity utility over its response to recent “theft” claims.

Responding to calls by the opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) for government intervention, Kwasi Thompson, pictured, minister of state for Grand Bahama, said Grand Bahama Power Company had reconnected some businesses that it initially cut-off as it probed the matter.

“As we understand, the Grand Bahama Power Company discovered that a fraud was going on with respect to the some of their sites. An investigation took place,” Mr Thompson said. “The Government has been engaged with the businesses; engaged with the Power Company from the very beginning.

“We understand that communications and discussions are continuing with some of those businesses. Some of those businesses have actually settled. So the parties have actually met and the matter has been settled, and their power has been cut back on. The process is ongoing.”

Mr Thompson continued: “We have been engaged in it from the beginning, and we continue to be engaged with those businesses. We continue to be engaged with the Power Company until there is complete resolution. The discussions are ongoing, and we will continue to be engaged in those discussions.”

As Tribune Business revealed, and was subsequently confirmed by GB Power, the chaos was caused by the installation of so-called “energy saving devices” at businesses and residences in Freeport. The sellers, and installers, exploited the desperation of numerous businesses and households to reduce electricity bills that had become equivalent to a second mortgage, eliminating corporate profits and shrinking household disposable income.

While sold as “magical boxes”, they were nothing of the sort - as confirmed by GB Power, which said many were “fake” and did nothing for energy saving and/or conservation. In order to produce the promised savings, the Freeport-based utility provider said the installations it uncovered had resorted to either bypassing or tampering with electricity meters to under-record actual consumption.

Such actions are illegal, with GB Power arguing that customers who had fallen for such deception were “victims of a fraud” that delivered no actual energy savings. The utility, which is 100 percent owned by Canadian-based Emera, added that it, too, was a victim because not all customer energy consumption was being recorded - resulting in underbillings and financial losses.

Under the Electricity Act and Freeport’s bye-laws, responsibility for paying up falls on the customer - not the installer. “The businesses and residences could claim and feign ignorance, but they’re still going to be liable for the loss suffered by the Power Company because they were the beneficial recipients, in effect, of stolen goods,” one source said.