Minister of Works Desmond Bannister.
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
WORKS Minister Desmond Bannister yesterday blamed recent power outages in New Providence on bad weather and technical issues, saying such power failures are problems officials “can’t plan against”.
He said officials can only work towards ensuring the impacts are minimal.
Bahamas Power and Light customers continue to express frustration with frequent power cuts, with some noting the issue has affected students who are using virtual learning platforms and even some small businesses.
By The Tribune’s count, there have been more than a dozen outages – including an island-wide blackout and other widespread cuts over the past three weeks since September 1.
Service disruptions continued on Monday affecting customers in parts of New Providence.
Asked about the issue by reporters yesterday, Mr Bannister admitted that while the power company is “going through growing pains”, it still has reliable generation.
He said yesterday: “I don’t know if people are outraged. BPL is going through growing pains. They have reliable generation. Yesterday, they had a lightning hit, something that you can’t plan against.
“Last week, we had an island-wide outage because there was a problem with one of the fuel tanks. These are challenges that you can’t plan against, but they are challenges that we have to work to ensure that we minimise.
“In this season and time of year, we can’t do anything about lightning but what we can do is ensure that first the public is informed quickly, that is the duty of Mr (Quincy) Parker there and secondly, to ensure that we respond on an urgent basis and that’s what BPL has been doing.”
Last summer, residents in New Providence suffered almost daily load shedding since June 19.
The power provider added a new engine to its Blue Hills Power Station in March of this year, in a move officials said would help improve the country’s energy production.
At the time, BPL chairman Donovan Moxey called the new GE TM2500 engine a “game changer” for BPL and the Bahamian people, adding it will aid in fixing long-standing problems experienced by BPL consumers.
Yesterday, the minister also urged BPL customers to pay their utility bills.
“BPL is very concerned about people who are able to pay and who are not paying. If you’re able to pay I would urge in your best interests to pay. If you’re not able to pay, I would urge you to make an arrangement with BPL,” he said.
Comments
Porcupine 3 years, 6 months ago
Winners don't need excuses. Bannister is way out of his league in so many ways. His presence costs this country dearly. And, we're paying his salary, on top of it.
birdiestrachan 3 years, 6 months ago
Mr: Banister all I have to say on the matter. is everything you fellows touch turns to pigeon poop.
All of you must have thrown rocks into the church.. Nothing is going in the right direction Sad but true.
ThisIsOurs 3 years, 6 months ago
"Minister Desmond Bannister yesterday blamed recent power outages in New Providence on bad weather and technical issues, saying such power failures are problems officials “can’t plan against"
and with that we see where the problem lies.
All non-"unserious" countries around the world plan their grids for resiliency in bad weather conditions. It woukd take a superstorm to knock everybody power out. But here we get a sprinkle and light out
bogart 3 years, 6 months ago
Frequent national Electricity plant, electrical power outages blamed on weather and technical issues....well they needs to learn from the jitney bus driver, who have the ability to carry reliable service to his passengers and have available the technical expertise to operate his bus with one small 6 cylinder Diesel bus engine.
benniesun 3 years, 6 months ago
An adept electrical power engineer who is certified in system protection is way smarter than the average executive. From past experience BEC executives had an aversion to such types. Seems like BPL is continuing on the same path, and elementary protection issues cascade into system failures.
lovingbahamas 3 years, 6 months ago
It’s shocking to me that in the year 2020 the Bahamas hasn’t figured out how to properly generate electricity. And, I figured that BPL must have an “Excuse Department” that dreams up these lame excuses for the mouthpieces to put out to the public. Someone hits a power pole and Nassau goes dark? Astonishing!
hrysippus 3 years, 6 months ago
I wonder why other countries do not suffer from weather like we have that causes BPL to shut down so regularly?
proudloudandfnm 3 years, 6 months ago
The really scary part is nobody in government is even approaching the actual problem, they're actually ignoring it. This is just insane.
So sad what Nassau has become, grew up there in the 80s and loved it with all my soul, now I wouldn't live there for money. The only way to aptly describe Nassau today is one word. Sh-thole. No other word. Horrible crime, horrible traffic, horrible service everywhere in every industry. Nassau is the best example of how not to run a city.
Sad.
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