The Tribune

BY FAY SIMMONS

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

AN OPPOSITION MP yesterday accused Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and Bahamas Grid Company (BGC) of blaming consumers and businesses for the country's energy crisis, arguing that years of failing to expand the grid to keep pace with New Providence's development has left the system unable to meet growing demand.

Speaking to Tribune Business, Michaela Barnett-Ellis, the Killarney MP, said businesses are already struggling with soaring electricity bills and have every incentive to conserve energy, dismissing suggestions that commercial customers should shoulder responsibility for easing pressure on the overloaded grid.

Her comments came after BPL urged businesses and government agencies to reduce electricity consumption as record demand pushed New Providence's power system close to capacity. Dareo McKenzie, BGC’s chief executive, also encouraged Bahamians to reduce electricity use during the hottest part of the day, suggesting some could spend time at the beach to help ease pressure on the grid.

"Honestly, I think their comments were insulting to the minds of many right-thinking Bahamians. They seem to blame everything except the failure to maintain, and the failure to upgrade the network as the island developed," said Mrs Barnett-Ellis.

"One of the things I've talked about in Killarney is deliberate development. If we're putting up condos and hotels, we ought to have the infrastructure to match. That's not only the drainage, but that's also the electrical grid."

She argued that New Providence’s electricity network should have expanded alongside residential and commercial growth. "As the island has developed, the grid should have as well so that we don't have this issue, which seems to be about capacity and overloading," said Mrs Barnett-Ellis.

BPL this week warned that prolonged high temperatures had driven electricity demand to record levels, with New Providence exceeding last year's peak demand twice before the traditional summer peak in August and September. The state-owned utility urged large commercial customers, government agencies and residents to reduce electricity consumption during peak hours to help maintain grid stability.

However, Mrs Barnett-Ellis argued businesses were already doing everything possible to manage electricity costs because of persistently high power bills. "Businesses want lower bills. These BPL bills are absolutely insane, so everybody is already watching the energy they consume," she said.

"The reality is that it's hot outside, so businesses have to have air conditioning, and it has to be at a certain temperature. The fact that this now consumes more energy isn't the business’s fault. This administration has talked about climate change, so they know the days are getting warmer. To blame everybody except the failure to prepare is, like I said, insulting our intelligence."

Mrs Barnett-Ellis also rejected suggestions that electric vehicles were contributing to pressure on the grid, noting successive administrations had encouraged their adoption through duty concessions and climate policies.

"This administration and previous administrations have been pushing electric vehicles. They've reduced the duty on electric vehicles, and they've travelled the world talking about climate change. So to now suggest the burden on the system is because there are electric vehicles just seems completely out of touch," she said.

Looking ahead, Mrs Barnett-Ellis said resolving the electricity crisis would require officials to first acknowledge the underlying cause of the problem rather than attributing it to consumers or businesses.

"I'm a firm believer that in order to solve a problem, you first have to identify the problem and admit that there's a problem," she said. "So far, we're not seeing that acknowledgement of what the actual problem is. We see a whole lot of blaming everybody from the FNM to electric vehicles to the heat and everything else.

"What I'd first like to see is an acknowledgement from those stakeholders as to what the actual problem is, because once you identify that, then we can talk about what the solution is. But if you're treating it as too many electric vehicles on the road and everybody using too much electricity, we're going nowhere fast."