More BPL power cuts

As of Monday, June 14, 2021

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

PARTS of New Providence suffered through power cuts over the weekend, leaving many residents angry.

Yesterday, Bahamas Power and Light said the problem affecting parts of eastern New Providence had been recognised and the restoration process had started, however customer complaints continued into the evening.

On Friday shortly before noon, BPL said equipment failure led to an outage in Blair and the vicinity earlier that morning.

“Our team is dealing with the issue at present, and we anticipate repairs to be completed within eight hours. We will update as more concrete information comes in,” BPL posted on Facebook on Friday.

Some complained that the electricity had been off for too long.

“It’s going on 19 hours without power. This is beyond ridiculous,” one person said on Facebook.

After 11pm on Friday, BPL posted: “For our customers in the Blair area, where there was an extended outage, a team is on site now (affecting) restoration. We anticipate supplies being restored by 12.15am barring unforeseen circumstances.”

On Saturday at 8.15 am, BPL reported that a “feeder trip” led to a power outage in the Pinewood area.

“A team is currently en route to resolve the matter. The estimated time for restoration is two hours,” BPL said.

Angry customers vented their frustration in the comments section of the post.

“Y’all so full of cp, (Pinewood) was off Friday night, Saturday morning and just now for two hours and I’m sure it’ll be off again later on today,” one person wrote, “it flipping hurts to have no choice but to deal with this company. Incompetent and comfortable.”

There were also complaints about power cuts in other areas on Saturday as well as reports of outages in Mount Vernon, High Vista and other areas in eastern New Providence yesterday.

The Tribune contacted BPL director of communications Quincy Parker yesterday for an explanation.

“Our team has identified the issue and has begun restoration of affected customers,” Mr Parker said.

“This is regarding the customers at High Vista. I will have to investigate Pinewood.”

Asked for the reason why the outages were occurring, Mr Parker said he needed some time to respond to that. Up to press time there was no reason given.

ThisIsOurs 2 years, 10 months ago

the power dipped multiple times out west today

tribanon 2 years, 10 months ago

I suspect more load shedding than ever will come this summer with the expansion of the port in Nassau to allow for the docking of more cruise ships and with the hotels starting to draw on the electrical power grid in a big way to accommodate their home port passengers.

Most residents of New Providence do not appreciate the extent to which the island's electrical grid is used by the huge floating hotels whenever they are in port. This is yet another 'big negative' associated with these monstrous cruise ships owned by the likes of Royal Caribbean and Carnival. They need us much more than we will ever need the pittance they contribute to our real economy all the while polluting our environment.

"Shore power, also known as ‘cold ironing’, enables ships to turn off their electricity generators and connect to local electric power that is supplied to the ship from the utility at the dock. Cold ironing is a shipping industry term that first came into use when ships started to be fitted with steam engines and ancillary machinery. When a ship was tied up at port there was no need to continue to fire the boilers and the machinery would literally cool down, eventually going completely cold, which gives the term ‘cold ironing’.

In larger ships fitted with high voltage systems the shore-ship power connection requires a sophisticated system of transformers, frequency changers for 50/60 Hz connections, switchgear, special cables, circuit breakers and control systems.

The rationale for supplying ships with electrical power from the shore utility supply while the ship is in port is to reduce pollution in the port area. Environmental considerations are becoming increasingly more important and the propulsion and electrical generation machinery of ocean-going vessels contribute to global air pollution by their exhaust gas emissions. These emissions are particularly significant for cruise ships when berthed in ports because of their constant need for ancillary power to meet domestic loads of lighting and heating, ventilation and air conditioning requirements."

Credit: Geoff Cronshaw, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, a registered as a Charity in England and Wales.

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