The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Residents and businesses in Central Andros are bracing for potential prolonged outages after a fire at BPL’s Fresh Creek station damaged critical infrastructure, raising fresh concerns about the island’s fragile power supply.

The fire, which broke out shortly after 6am on Sunday, resulted in the loss of a trailer unit and one of the building sheds. Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) said the blaze was extinguished before it could spread to the main generation facility, but power to the surrounding area was affected.

In an effort to restore electricity, BPL said two rental generation units are being brought in from a vendor in Grand Bahama.

“BPL is pleased to announce that two rental generation units have been secured to aid in the restoration efforts in Fresh Creek, Andros, following the fire at the local power station early Sunday morning. The units are being transported from a vendor in Grand Bahama, with arrangements in progress for a charter to deliver them directly into Central Andros,” said BPL.

“Mobilisation is expected to commence this afternoon, providing much-needed relief to the community as the units are deployed in Fresh Creek. Additionally, the equipment available at the North Station will be used to further support the restoration. BPL teams are continuing their efforts to energise some customers from the North Station in the meantime.”

Andros Chamber of Commerce president Darin Bethel said the community is concerned this latest incident could lead to prolonged outages, similar to when a fire destroyed the North Andros station in July 2023.

Mr Bethel said residents fear they will face weeks or even months of inconsistent electricity, while businesses now have the added burden of soaring fuel costs to run back-up systems and protect their stock.

“A big concern is going to be ensuring they don’t lose a lot of inventory. The boat comes in once a week, and businesses stock enough inventory to carry them for at least a week. Those who don’t have the means to substitute power may find themselves losing a lot of inventory,” said Mr Bethel.

“Luckily, some businesses in Central Andros have generators, but it’s going to be very costly to operate those generators in the interim because fuel costs are very high right now. It’s going to affect businesses in the area heavily.”

He added that the government must “get moving” on the hybrid or renewable energy plant promised for the island since 2023, warning that without action, Andros will remain vulnerable to these recurring disruptions.

At the time of the announcement, former BPL CEO Shevonn Cambridge said the utility was pursuing a more sustainable, long-term energy solution for the island.

“As we gear up now to look at putting in the long-term solution, we’re going to supplement the supply in North Andros with a little bit more reliable rental power in the interim, but we are also going to build a new power station down there,” said Mr Cambridge.

“A new power station is an 18-to-24-month project because we’re looking at several options, and one of them is actually to put in a hybrid solution that’s going to be a little bit more of a greener solution than what was formerly in North Andros.

“We’re going to use this as an opportunity to probably combine some of the generation assets between central and north, which would give us greater efficiencies in our operations in Andros in general.”

Mr Bethel noted that despite the government’s stated plans, there has been no visible progress toward implementation.

He emphasised that developing a hybrid or renewable energy facility is critical to addressing the ongoing power supply issues that have affected the island for the past four years

“The government needs to stop being all talk and no actions. We have yet to this day seen ground broken or property cleared. They said at the time that they had already identified the property that they were going to use… I think Andros has just been totally ignored. It’s just like Andros is just not a priority or a concern for this administration, and anything related to Andros gets put on the back burner,” said Mr Bethel.

“We, the people, realise that we are going to have to do our best to survive without the immediate support of the government in rectifying our problems, most particularly this new thing now, which is this power concern in the Central Andros community.”