The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

POWER outages that officials partly blamed on summer heat have continued into October, with Sandilands Primary School sending students home early yesterday because of a prolonged outage.

Bahamas Power and Light reported outages this week across New Providence, affecting parts of downtown, Harbour Bay and Shirley Street, and eastern and western New Providence. For some of the outages, BPL said, technicians confirmed a surge on the system and suspected a fault.

Energy Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis acknowledged the hardship the interruptions have caused, and said improving reliability remains a priority of the government. BPL has a responsibility to provide stable and reliable electricity, she said in the House of Assembly yesterday, and the Water and Sewerage Corporation a responsibility to provide dependable access to water.

Mrs Coleby-Davis said the reform and modernisation of the utilities must strengthen the services customers depend on.

She also cautioned that technological advances should not come at the expense of personal customer service. As the utilities rely more on digital platforms, automated systems and smart technology, she said, those changes must never replace personal interaction, particularly for the elderly.

Throughout the summer, officials pointed to the heat as a factor in the outages. Mrs Coleby-Davis attributed the increase in outages to high summer demand driven by higher temperatures. In July, she said the system faced pressure from high demand, extreme heat, severe weather and ageing infrastructure, but that those challenges did not excuse the hardship the public experienced. In June, BPL blamed equipment failures, underground cable faults and an early summer heat wave for outages.

That heat has since eased. The Bahamas Department of Meteorology kept heat advisories in effect for much of July and August, at one point forecasting heat indices as high as 118F. By September 9, its public forecast listed no warnings in effect. Summer officially ended on September 22. Despite this, the outages have not stopped.