The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A LIGHTNING strike that triggered an explosion at Bahamas Power and Light’s Blue Hills Power Station yesterday deepened public anger over a summer of repeated outages, leaving residents, businesses, hotels, the airport and parts of Princess Margaret Hospital grappling with disruptions as critics accused the Davis administration of failing to fix the country’s electricity crisis.

Shadow Minister for Energy, Utilities and Aviation Dr Andre Rollins accused the Davis administration of failing to provide reliable electricity, noting that Energy Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis had recently said BPL had enough generation capacity to meet summer demand.

“Less than a month later, the country and New Providence are plagued with catastrophic and daily electricity outages, sometimes lasting hours upon hours,” Dr Rollins said.

The Sunday morning blast knocked out electricity across numerous New Providence communities and forced BPL crews into a day-long restoration effort that saw power restored, lost again, and gradually brought back online as technicians worked to stabilise the system.

BPL Energy Supply Director Jeffery Davis said the disruption began at 10.06am amid reports of severe lightning in the area.

“At 10:06 am this morning, amidst reports of severe lightning activity in the area, there was a system disturbance that impacted all generation at Blue Hill Power Station and some other generation at the Clifton Pier Power Station, with accompanying reports of explosion at 33 kv substation B at Blue Hill Power station after the area was declared safe,” Mr Davis said.

He said a team inspected the site and found a severe fault on the Earnest Street South Circuit at Substation B and Blue Hills Power Station before immediately beginning restoration work.

Mr Davis said ongoing upgrades to BPL’s main interconnector prevented the company from immediately supplying auxiliaries at Blue Hills Power Station to begin the restoration process. He said crews later managed to back-feed through an alternative circuit and began restoring assets at the station.

Videos later circulated on social media purporting to show smoke billowing from inside the power station after the lightning strike.

By Sunday afternoon, BPL said power had been restored to about 60 percent of customers on New Providence. The utility said crews initially restored electricity to roughly 50 percent of consumers served by Blue Hills Power Station, but additional system disturbances caused the station to trip offline again as technicians worked to isolate the fault on the Earnest Street South Circuit at Substation B.

Later, technicians were advised that Windsor Field 1 had tripped offline, cutting supply to Venetian West, Albany, Western Medical Center, Orange Hill to Old Fort Bay, and North and South Westridge.

Shortly before 6pm, BPL said Substation B at Blue Hills Power Station had been successfully re-energised at about 5.30pm. Full restoration efforts were still underway, with crews gradually bringing areas back online to preserve system stability. No restoration window was available.

The outage spilled into major commercial and tourism operations.

A guest at Atlantis Paradise Island’s Royal Towers claimed online that they and their toddler were trapped in an elevator for about 45 minutes during the outage.

“The buttons not working, even the emergency one,” the guest said. “We called multiple contact numbers on the website and understandably some are call centers and don't have direct contact to the resort. Thirty minutes after being stuck, other guests passing by heard us and called help right away.”

“Grateful for the service people who helped us got out. They were able to break through the elevator and got us out through a foot gap they made. It was very scary for our toddler. Not pleased at all!”

Another guest alleged power remained down at the resort at 6pm and said restaurants were not allowing some guests with reservations to enter.

“Every meal should be free for current guests. It's getting worse,” the guest said.

An Atlantis spokesperson confirmed the BPL outage caused one of the Royal generators to fail. Elevator service was disrupted, but restaurants were not affected, the spokesperson claimed. All operations returned to normal within two hours of the outage.

A Nassau Airport Development Company representative said Lynden Pindling International Airport’s air-conditioning systems were affected by power anomalies on Saturday and again Sunday morning.

“Works were performed yesterday and again this morning to bring the TC system back online,” the representative said. “The airport is cool and experiencing normal operations at this time.”

The outage unleashed a flood of frustration online from residents already weary of summer power cuts and the punishing heat.

“I misewell unplug my fridge, cause by the time BPL finish I gonna need a new one,” one social media user wrote.

Another said: “Man for BPL to do this to me after I paid my bill in full yesterday is crazy”.

A third posted: “BPL sent everyone doubled bills then turn the island off?! I love it here (not).”

The latest disruption followed outages in some areas on Friday, when the Public Hospitals Authority issued a notice saying Princess Margaret Hospital’s Medical Block, including the Dialysis Unit, was experiencing a power outage.

Dr Rollins added: “What is the minister's excuse for these blackouts this time? Power losses at Princess Margaret Hospital have resulted in the inability to provide dialysis to patients, businesses without generators cannot transact credit card payments.”

“And Bahamians who cannot afford the expense of purchasing generators are suffering in the sweltering heat in their homes or going for a drive in their cars on pothole-filled roads. Because of constant power outages, facilities and businesses with generators are also experiencing problems with consistent electricity supply.”

Dr Rollins also renewed criticism of the government’s energy reform efforts, saying the creation of Bahamas Grid Company had not delivered the reliability consumers were promised.

“We were told that the sale of BPL electricity grid assets to Bahamas Grid Company would produce a reliable, consistent energy supply and that load shedding would become a thing of the past,” he said.

He also questioned rising electricity costs, citing complaints from customers who reported receiving bills far higher than usual.

Dr Rollins urged the Davis administration to fully explain the generation, transmission and distribution problems behind the outages.

“Has the government's PR on BPL moved into the territory of fabrication, making it up as they go along? Minister Coleby-Davis needs to come clean on the facts and stop trying to fool the Bahamian people who are suffering because of this government’s neglect and massive incompetence,” he said.

While saying BPL had enough generation capacity to meet summer demand, Mrs Coleby-Davis warned last month that power interruptions could occur as BPL undergoes significant infrastructure upgrades across New Providence.