The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

NORTH Guana Cay residents have been without electricity for up to 13 days, with Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) struggling to restore full supply after newly-connected transformer equipment encountered capacity and overheating problems.

The prolonged outage has been compounded by a series of setbacks in the utility's restoration efforts, including difficulties bringing replacement equipment online and ongoing work to investigate a subsea cable fault affecting electricity supply in the Abaco cays.

In its latest update, BPL said its team remained in Guana Cay troubleshooting newly-connected transformer equipment after attempts to safely place it online the previous day were unsuccessful.

The utility also said a diving team was scheduled to inspect the subsea cable fault between Matt Lowe's Cay and Man-O-War Cay, while warning that power supply remains interrupted in North Guana Cay and no restoration window was available.

The latest developments follow BPL's earlier announcement that it had successfully brought a temporary transformer bank online, restoring electricity to about 60 per cent of the affected area as far as the On The Rocks substation.

However, that progress was subsequently reversed for some customers after BPL said several transformers in the stepped-up configuration had reached their maximum loading capacity, with some experiencing overheating.

The utility said it was forced to take some customers offline following the initial energisation, as its technicians assessed the equipment limitations and worked to safely restore the remaining affected customers.

Jeremy Sweeting, Hope Town's chief councillor, said the prolonged disruption was a serious concern for Guana Cay, which falls within his local government district.

"We really need power in Guana Cay. We are agitating as best we can from a local level, but BPL is having a lot of issues keeping the cay supplied with power, especially Guana Cay," he said.

Mr Sweeting said he hoped a permanent solution will become a reality sooner rather than later, given how long some residents have been affected.

"They've suffered for quite a long time. Some specific areas without electricity for 11 days or more," he said.

Residents are now reporting outages extending to about 13 days in parts of North Guana Cay, highlighting the difficulties facing the utility in restoring reliable electricity to the community.

The latest disruption follows BPL's earlier decision to redirect a replacement generator originally intended for Guana Cay to Man-O-War Cay, after technicians determined that additional repairs were needed before the existing Man-O-War generating unit could safely supply electricity.

BPL had said it was arranging transportation for the replacement generator to Man-O-War while its dive team awaited favourable weather to investigate the subsea cable fault. The utility has apologised for the continued inconvenience and thanked affected customers for their patience as restoration efforts continue.