The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

MORE than 72,000 Bahamas Power and Light customers will receive rebates after BPL abandoned years-long appeals and agreed to return $610,240.94 in regulatory fines imposed over its handling of the crippling power outages that battered New Providence in 2018 and 2019, according to the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority.

URCA said the rebates will be applied to eligible residential accounts during this month’s billing period and appear as adjustments on customers’ next electricity bills.

The settlement closes two enforcement cases that grew out of the September 2018 fire at Clifton Pier Power Station and the prolonged load shedding that repeatedly plunged New Providence into darkness in 2019.

URCA found that BPL withheld information required during its investigations and breached several core obligations under its public electricity supplier’s licence, including requirements to maintain its generating facilities, properly forecast electricity demand and provide an adequate, safe and efficient power supply.

The regulator also found that BPL failed to take reasonable steps to prevent and resolve unplanned interruptions.

Rather than collect the $610,240.94 in fines itself, URCA accepted a proposal allowing BPL to return the entire sum directly to residential consumers.

“By accepting the Customer Rebate Initiative in lieu of payment of the fines, URCA has ensured that the benefit of the settlement would flow directly to consumers,” the regulator said.

URCA stressed that the penalties cannot be folded into BPL’s operating costs or clawed back from customers through higher electricity bills.

“Regulatory fines are penalties imposed on BPL for breaches of its regulatory obligations,” URCA said. “They are not costs that BPL is permitted to recover through customer electricity bills.”

The first enforcement case sprang from URCA’s investigations into the September 7, 2018 fire at Clifton Pier and the punishing round of load shedding that swept New Providence during the following summer.

The Clifton fire triggered widespread outages and knocked significant generating capacity offline. During the summer of 2019, frequent outages again disrupted homes and businesses across the island as BPL struggled to meet electricity demand.

URCA requested information from BPL as it investigated both crises. However, the regulator found that the utility failed or refused to provide all the information demanded under the Electricity Act and its licence.

In November 2019, URCA described BPL’s conduct as repeated and continuing breaches that hampered the regulator’s ability to carry out its statutory functions. It fined the utility $229,535.34 in that enforcement matter.

The second case examined BPL’s performance during the prolonged 2019 outages.

Following what it described as a detailed investigation, URCA concluded that BPL had failed to take all reasonable steps to maintain its generating facilities and had inadequately forecast and planned for electricity demand.

The regulator also found that BPL failed to provide an adequate, safe and efficient electricity supply and did not take reasonable steps to prevent or quickly resolve unplanned outages.

BPL challenged the regulator’s findings before the Utilities Appeal Tribunal, stretching the dispute over several years.

The utility has now abandoned those appeals and negotiated a settlement with URCA, bringing both enforcement cases to an end.

URCA said it will monitor the rebates to ensure BPL distributes them in accordance with the agreement.

Customers with questions about their rebates or electricity bills must first contact BPL through the complaints process established under its Consumer Protection Plan.

The regulator acknowledged that many customers continue to endure power interruptions and pledged to keep pressing BPL and other electricity providers to improve the reliability and delivery of electricity throughout The Bahamas.

“URCA remains focused on protecting consumers, monitoring BPL’s compliance with its licence obligations, and taking appropriate regulatory action where regulatory standards are not met,” the regulator said.