The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

GOLDEN Gates MP Pia Glover-Rolle’s public demand for answers from Bahamas Power and Light prompted opposition politicians and some observers to portray the Cabinet minister’s intervention as a swipe at Energy Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis.

Mrs Glover-Rolle issued a forceful statement yesterday after residents endured repeated outages, sometimes several times a day and night, and demanded that BPL explain the disruptions, identify measures to reduce them and provide a timetable for permanent corrective work.

Her remarks quickly attracted attention online, where observers interpreted the public pressure on BPL as a possible sign of tension between the two Cabinet ministers.

Long Island MP Andre Rollins accused Mrs Glover-Rolle of trying to distance herself from the Davis administration’s handling of the electricity crisis, while Free National Movement deputy leader Shanendon Cartwright questioned whether her intervention exposed inconsistencies between what Mrs Coleby-Davis has told the public and what Cabinet ministers know.

Mrs Glover-Rolle said her constituency office had been inundated with complaints from residents suffering through persistent outages.

“Families are losing hundreds of dollars in groceries. Parents are struggling to care for young children in stifling conditions,” she said.

“Seniors and persons living with chronic illnesses are being forced to endure dangerous levels of heat. Small businesses are suffering financial losses, and many residents are unable to rest at night or function productively during the day.”

Mrs Glover-Rolle called on BPL to explain the cause of the outages, outline interim measures to reduce the interruptions, establish a timeline for permanent repairs and regularly update residents and her constituency office.

She also requested a meeting with BPL’s executive and technical teams within a week.

She said she relayed residents’ frustration over enduring prolonged outages despite the constituency’s proximity to the Blue Hills Power Station.

She said BPL explained that the outages followed a major fault at the power station and that restoring electricity would require repairs to the distribution network.

The utility also told her that exceptionally high summer demand was placing additional strain on the electricity system.

Mrs Glover-Rolle urged residents still without electricity to send her their street addresses or the precise locations of their homes so she could forward the information to BPL for investigation.

She expressed sympathy for residents who lost food, suffered sleepless nights and endured other hardships during the outages.

“My hope is that we will not experience another prolonged outage of this nature,” Mrs Glover-Rolle said, pledging to engage BPL and press for reliable electricity service in Golden Gates.

BPL later acknowledged the concerns raised by Mrs Glover-Rolle and residents of Golden Gates, East Street South and surrounding communities.

The utility said a main cable leaving the Blue Hills Power Station developed three faults, disrupting electricity to consumers in the affected areas.

The outage began around 11pm on Sunday. BPL said crews restored electricity to affected customers around 6.30am on Wednesday after extensive investigations and repairs.

BPL rotated electricity between the Marshall Road and Golden Gates areas during the repair period in an effort to reduce the length of time residents remained without power.

“This measure was put in place to reduce the length of time consumers remained without electricity while technical teams worked to locate, isolate, and repair the faults,” BPL said.

BPL said repairing an underground cable is a lengthy process requiring technical teams to isolate the damaged cable, trace its route and determine the precise location of the fault. Crews must then excavate the area, expose and repair the damaged section, test the cable and reconnect it before safely restoring electricity.

The utility said extreme heat had also driven up demand as consumers relied more heavily on air-conditioning units, fans, refrigerators and other cooling appliances.

Nonetheless, Dr Rollins argued that Mrs Glover-Rolle should have pursued answers directly through Cabinet rather than publicly pressing BPL.

“It’s another example of PLP public relations in overdrive,” he said. “We have clearly a member of parliament who serves in the Cabinet. She can very easily reach out or even across the table in the event they don’t sit side by side to make inquiries of her colleague about what is in fact happening that’s resulting in the chronic power failures in her constituency.”

Dr Rollins said Mrs Glover-Rolle could not divorce herself from the failures because she serves in the same Cabinet as Mrs Coleby-Davis.

Dr Rollins said Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis should face questions over the failures.

“Instead of having a responsive prime minister, we have a cabinet minister blaming, seemingly throwing a jab at her cabinet colleague, rather than saying ‘we’ meaning ‘I am a member of the government. We are doing all we can to rectify the current problem, and we hope to have it resolved as soon as possible’,” he said.

Mr Cartwright also questioned Mrs Glover-Rolle’s demand for answers, arguing that it conflicted with the administration’s repeated assurances that recent outages were isolated and temporary.

He said the questions she posed echoed concerns that residents and the opposition had raised for some time.

“Does the minister's remarks indicate an inconsistency between what the Minister of Energy is telling the public and quite possibly what the Cabinet is being made aware of? The Bahamian people deserve to know,” Mr Cartwright said.

“The Bahamian people were told by the Minister for Energy, that BPL would be ready and that the summer demand would be met. The Bahamian people were also told that the transmission and distribution structured upgrades in New Providence were complete. So questions remain not only for residents in Golden Gates but across New Providence and the nation.”