The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) yesterday blamed multiple New Providence outages on equipment faults, underground cable failures and soaring electricity demand caused by an early summer heat wave, while maintaining that major network upgrades remain on schedule ahead of hurricane season.

Responding to Tribune Business inquiries, Anthony Christie, BPL's chief operating officer, acknowledged that customers have experienced repeated service interruptions in recent days but said the utility has developed plans to minimise disruption as critical maintenance work continues.

"New Providence has experienced a number of outages over the past several days," said Mr Christie. "These outages have been caused by faults affecting substation equipment and underground cables in certain areas. Additionally, the ongoing heat wave has resulted in peak system loads, placing increased demand on the electrical network."

Mr Christie said BPL has expanded its communications efforts during outages, with planned notifications typically issued 24 to 48 hours in advance and updates provided through the utility's Whats App channel.

He added that Bahamas Grid Company (BGC) is in the final stages of transmission and distribution upgrades for New Providence, and remains on track to complete the work before the end of June.

"We also wish to advise that Bahamas Grid Company is in the final stages of foundational upgrades to the transmission and distribution (T&D) system on New Providence," he said.  "Despite encountering several challenges, BGC has accelerated its work and remains on track to complete these upgrades before the end of June."

According to Mr Christie, the work is designed to improve both system resilience and operational flexibility ahead of the peak summer demand. "These improvements are expected to strengthen the New Providence T&D network by enhancing both reliability and redundancy," he said.

"As we enter the summer months, our goal is to ensure that sufficient generation capacity is available and that the network is equipped to manage higher temperatures and increased electricity demand."

Mr Christie’s comments followed a weekend in which BPL issued multiple outage notices affecting communities across New Providence.

On Friday, western New Providence customers from Old Fort Bay to near Compass Point experienced a prolonged outage while repairs were undertaken. Separate interruptions also affected Charlotteville, Love Estates, Airport Industrial Park and Turnberry. Customers served by the Ebenezer Church substation also experienced an extended outage while repairs were carried out.

Additional outages were reported on Saturday in South Beach.

The disruptions intensified on Sunday as outages affected Fort Charlotte, Carmichael West, Bacardi Road, Carmichael Village and Unison Road. Later in the day, operational faults interrupted service to Big Pond, Fire Trail West Commercial, Golden Isles Road, Victoria Gardens, Excellence Estates, Golden Meadows and Southern Breeze, while additional customers in Munnings Road, Emerald Coast and Killarney Shores were also affected.

BPL also reported Sunday night that a blown transformer had caused an outage affecting pockets of Paradise Island. While many of those customers had power restored by early yesterday morning, BPL later reported a separate interruption affecting Blair and Paradise Island.

Another outage occurred yesterday afternoon after a generator circuit breaker at the East Hill and Earnest Street substations tripped offline, disrupting service to parts of downtown Nassau, including Doctors Hospital, the Public Hospital Authority and several nearby businesses. Power was later restored.