The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

ABACO businesses and homeowners are counting thousands of dollars in losses as prolonged power outages dragged into a second day yesterday, leaving entire communities without electricity and fuelling fears about the holiday season and the island’s economic stability.

Residents across Central and South Abaco, Hope Town and Sweeting Village said they endured more than 24 hours without power, with repeated failures, spoiled food, damaged appliances, and little information from Bahamas Power and Light about when full service would return.

In Hope Town, restaurant owner Junior Menard, 54, said the outages cost him his entire refrigerated inventory.

“We basically lost all of our refrigerated inventory. Had to be thrown away,” he said. “We are probably looking at about $4,000 worth of inventory gone.”

Power went out at 1pm Tuesday, briefly returned after midnight, then failed again at 4am Wednesday. When Mr Menard spoke to The Tribune, service still had not been restored. He said the timing could be devastating for businesses that depend on the holiday tourism season.

“My biggest fear right now is going and sourcing the funds to replace everything to get ready for our holiday season,” he said. “This problem is not a small problem. They are sourcing power from North Abaco, which is Cooper’s Town and giving it out on a rotational or load-shedding basis.”

Before BPL released its technical update on Wednesday afternoon, he said communication from the company had been limited.

In Sweeting Village, 70-year-old resident Deedee Russell said she lost two refrigerators in separate apartments she owns, valued at more than $4,800, after the outage damaged internal systems.

Her power has been off since 12.45pm Tuesday. She said neighbours are facing the same.

“Whether you have a generator or not, this is disgraceful,” Ms Russell said. “You pay a bill every month, and you are off just as much.” She said outages occurred “every day just about”, and she had no notice from BPL about when power would return.

Despite the frustration, residents acknowledged that line crews have been working continuously in sweltering conditions to restore the supply.

Only after nearly two days of outages did BPL give a full account of the system breakdown. The company said the “root cause” of the island-wide failure was the collapse of the Wilson City Power Plant’s main electrical compressor, which regulates airflow within the station. When that compressor failed, BPL switched to a diesel unit, but that backup also malfunctioned.

“As the air pressure decreased, the plant tripped offline. It's not a situation where the power units are not working. It's a situation where both of our auxiliaries have failed,” Marvin Green, Northern Family Island Regional Manager, said.

Engineering teams tried adapting parts from identical compressors and even enlisted a local machine shop, but the attempts were unsuccessful. They located a portable compressor, but it could only reach 12 bars — below the required 15 to 25.

BPL then redirected power from Cooper’s Town to provide rotational relief to Central and South Abaco. A replacement compressor originally expected on December 8 was delayed until January 10, 2026.

Power failures also hit the Cays, where Hope Town experienced a malfunction on its local unit. Although four new-generation units were secured in August, BPL said Hope Town can accommodate only one at a time because of insufficient land mass. Attempts to feed Hope Town from Man-O-War Cay also failed when a transformer malfunctioned there. The company is now in discussions with a landowner regarding the placement of a second unit on Hope Town.

Mr Green said work has been ongoing since Tuesday to resolve the cascading failures.

In Parliament, Central and South Abaco MP John Pinder said the Wilson City station had faced “multiple issues affecting power generation”. He said temporary equipment was being sourced and that he remained in contact with senior BPL officials.

“As an Abaconian, I am experiencing the same challenges and fully understand the impact of the issues it is having in our communities,” he said. He also urged BPL to consider financial relief for customers through bill credits “considering the enormous amount of outages and distribution problems that we have had in this coming to Christmas time”.

Residents said they hope for reliable power before Christmas, as businesses brace for the annual holiday surge.