The Tribune

BY ANNELIA NIXON


Tribune Business Reporter


anixon@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Power and Light (BPL) has apologized to Cat Island residents, businesses and visitors after an island-wide power outage disrupted the closing night of the annual Rake & Scrape Festival, an event regarded as one of the island’s most important economic drivers.

The utility said a fire involving one of its generating units triggered the outage on June 6, forcing the cancellation of the festival’s final night and leaving businesses, vendors and residents without electricity for nearly 22 hours.

In a statement released yesterday, BPL acknowledged the impact of the outage on the community and festival organizers.

“We recognize the significant inconvenience caused to our valued customers and the impact the outage had on the closing night of the festival,” it said. “We understand the disappointment experienced by residents, visitors, performers, vendors and organizers who were affected by the cancellation of the festival’s closing events.”

According to BPL, the outage began around 8:30 p.m. when the turbocharger on the Cat Island 1 (CI1) generation unit failed, causing oil to leak onto the exhaust manifold and ignite.

The station operator immediately shut down the unit and tripped all feeders as a safety precaution, leading to the island-wide blackout.

The outage occurred during what is traditionally one of Cat Island’s busiest tourism and commercial weekends. The Rake & Scrape Festival attracts visitors from across The Bahamas and provides a significant income opportunity for local entrepreneurs, food vendors and small businesses.

Vince McDonald, owner of Curly’s Beach Resort, told Tribune Business that while his business was able to continue operating using emergency lighting, many vendors were not as fortunate.

“People on the island look forward to that weekend to make money. That’s how they do,” Mr McDonald said.

“Those people with stalls and booths suffered drastically.”

BPL said restoration efforts began immediately, with crews restoring power to parts of North Cat Island up to Thurston Hill by 10:33 p.m. However, additional mechanical problems developed when CI Unit 3 later tripped offline and could not be restarted, leaving only one generating unit, CI Unit 4, available.