DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Works Desmond Bannister.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Works Desmond Bannister expressed confidence yesterday that Bahamas Power and Light will not implement load shedding this summer.
He said the electricity provider can safely account for between 215 and 350 megawatts during the summer, more than the anticipated peak load of 250mw.
While acknowledging there have been no load shedding incidents this year, Mr Bannister noted there have been power outages that have shaken the confidence some have in BPL.
He said some of the outages have been caused by challenging weather events.
He added: “Some have been caused by careless drivers knocking power poles down. Outages over the past two days were caused by the unfortunate fire on Monday night. And quite frankly, others have been caused by human error. BPL is working to improve its transmission and distribution capabilities to decrease the number of outages, and they know that I expect that appropriate action will be taken when outages are caused as a result of human error.”
Mr Bannister said electricity bills are also “lower than any of us can remember” because of BPL’s hedging strategy.
Mr Bannister also discussed indicators that he said show that the quality of BPL’s services have been improving, including the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) – the average outage duration for each customer measured in units of time.
“BPL has demonstrated a consistent and remarkable improvement in reliability using the SAIDI index,” he said. “So far this year, BPL is consistently and significantly under the target duration set for each month. This year, the outages our customers had to endure were on average far shorter than anticipated.”
The System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) is another reliability indicator he highlighted. It captures the average number of interruptions customers experience and is measured in units of interruptions per customer. Mr Bannister said BPL this year has experienced “a far smaller number of outages than anticipated.”
Discussing BPL’s effort to restore electricity on Abaco following Hurricane Dorian, Mr Bannister said every single community on mainland Abaco “either has power or has access to power.”
He said: Our work on the island continues to advance. To begin with, we concentrated on restoring the distribution system first, which is effectively mostly rebuilt, allowing the reconnection of all customers on the mainland who are ready to be reconnected. We are now in the process of rebuilding the transmission network on the island, building in increased resiliency and efficiency with the use of new ductile metal poles and other technological advances, adding in redundant lines and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) remote control.”
Mr Bannister said after BPL introduced its payment plan options in November 2020, the number of payment plans that have opened have increased. These include 58 by November 20; 383 in December; 380 in January and 468 in February for a total of 1,289.
“To ensure there was consistent cash flow as a result of the payment arrangements, BPL changed its disconnection strategy to disconnection for non-payment of total delinquent balances over 30 days and over $500, which commenced on January 4, 2021.” he said.
Comments
tribanon 2 years, 10 months ago
Does anyone really believe a word coming out of Bannister's mouth anymore?
Topdude 2 years, 10 months ago
I do. And the majority of the Bahamian people do. Now how is that for your minority view? Get a life loser. Thanks.
John 2 years, 10 months ago
.” he said. Some persons light bids is over $500 a month and so they still come home and meet their homes in darkness. And some don’t get home until bacteria BPL is closed. Why not just leave the notice in the first instance and disconnect only if the bill is not paid in a dash 3 days?
Sickened 2 years, 10 months ago
BPL = LOL.
B_I_D___ 2 years, 10 months ago
We are screwed now...whenever they say no more load shedding...things ramp up with power failures.
GodSpeed 2 years, 10 months ago
2019 was the year from hell with daily power outages for like an entire year, can't be worse than that.
tribanon 2 years, 10 months ago
You just wait!
Sickened 2 years, 10 months ago
You just recently moved to Nassau huh?
islandgirl 2 years, 10 months ago
There are still many parts of Abaco without power to date and most of us were without power for more than a year beginning September 1, 2019. So, yeah, the people of Abaco have had it worse than anyone.
bahamianson 2 years, 10 months ago
he is correct and truthful. he said ' wont face planned outages'. there will be outages , just not planned.
birdiestrachan 2 years, 10 months ago
it has to be given to him. HE IS A BOLD FACE LIAR> PERIOD
John 2 years, 10 months ago
In Phoenix, Arizona, temperatures were hitting up to 117F degrees. The area was already suffering from severe drought and persons were warned about touching metal objects that were exposed to the sun's heat and they could suffer burns, even from walking without the proper footwear. And guess what? The power started going off. The grid could not handle the power demand to additional use of air conditioners. And so the power company ask persons with generators to use them to help manage the load and keep the power on. New providence needs BPL to not be just a power generating and distribution company, but a power management company. Every home and business buildings can be outfitted with solar panels and a metering system that will allow the owners to get power credits when they generate more generate than they use. This can be done at a cost of 1/3 of what it costs BPL to do. BPL then 'sells' and distributes this power on its grid and only produces the excess that is required on the grid. The average price of a kilowatt of electricity can drop by50% and there will be less outages due to generation and distribution failures, Then the model can be incorporated and fine tuned for each family island. And there ar some areas and islands where wind generation can become a great factor. Even water flowing under potters cay can generate a significant amount of electricity.
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