The Tribune

By FAY SIMMONS

TRIBUNE Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

ABACO tourism operators are hopeful that a major new hybrid power facility will finally bring greater reliability to the island, but yesterday warned that years of recurring outages are already putting repeat and referral business on which many resorts depend at risk.

Molly McIntosh, the Bluff House Beach Resort and Marina’s top management executive, said the proposed EA Energy plant represents a positive step for an island where unreliable electricity has increasingly affected businesses and residents.

“It certainly is a good step towards making something happen. Can I tell you if I’m confident? I don’t know enough about that technology or the amount of generation that it’s going to put out. I can’t say that I’m confident, but I’m certainly hopeful,” said Ms McIntosh.

She said the power problems have become particularly concerning for Abaco’s tourism industry because many properties depend heavily on returning guests and word-of-mouth referrals.

“We survive on repeat business, and if we’re not going to be able to get that business back here because of something like the power being out all the time, that’s a terrible thing,” said Ms McIntosh.

“It kills not only the business you have right then and there - you have to give money back and do all kinds of little things to make it up to them - but then they don’t always come back.”

Ms McIntosh said repeat business accounts for a significant share of Abaco’s tourism market, making the visitor experience critical to the island’s ability to attract future guests.

“Our repeat business is probably the highest of anywhere around that I know of. The percentage of business that’s repeat business in Abaco has got to be higher than anywhere else, probably in The Bahamas,” she said. “And if we give them a bad experience, they’re not coming back.”

She said many new guests also arrive because they were referred by previous visitors or friends, meaning an outage can have an impact beyond the immediate loss of revenue. “A lot of times, if it’s a new customer, it’s someone who was referred to come here,” said Ms McIntosh.

“If they come here and they have power outages and no water, and they can’t flush the toilets and that kind of thing, then they’re not going to tell the next person about it. They’re not going to want to come back.”

Ms McIntosh said having generators at individual properties does not completely shield visitors from the consequences of an island-wide outage, particularly because water services are also dependent on electricity.

“Even if a place that people rent has a generator, there are still definitely inconveniences that every tourist staying here will encounter when the power goes off, whether their place has a generator or not,” she said.

“Sometimes the water goes down because our water is generally generated - it comes through electricity. So if the power’s down on the mainland, then we lose water. Even if they have a generator, they don’t have water. And that’s almost as bad as not having power. In some cases, it’s worse.”

Her comments came after Prime Minister Philip Davis KC toured the site of the EA Energy hybrid power facility in Abaco on Friday, as the Government advances a major investment aimed at strengthening the island’s generation capacity.

The project is expected to combine nearly 30 mega watts (MW) of LNG-powered generation with a 60-acre solar facility and 20 MWh (mega watt hours) of battery storage.

The solar component is expected to begin feeding electricity into the grid in November, while the LNG engines and battery storage are targeted to come online by May 2027.

Ms McIntosh said she was encouraged by the Prime Minister’s visit and the resources being committed to the island’s power infrastructure, although she stopped short of saying the project would definitely resolve Abaco’s problems.

“I’m really hopeful. I really am. I’m so glad to see the PM here and talking. I think they take it seriously, and everything can’t happen immediately,” she said.

“I think things take a little longer in the islands, and it just does. It’s hard to get stuff here and make things happen. I think they did a good job in making it happen pretty quickly, so hopefully it’ll work.”

Emanuel “Manny” Alexiou, proprietor of Abaco Beach Resort and president of the Bahama Out Island Promotion Board, also welcomed the prospect of more reliable generation, although he said questions remain over how the new facility will be operated, maintained and integrated into the wider power system.

“We’ve had a lot of outages, and I think it’s been a little worse than last year overall. There have been some big ones, including outages that affected the whole island,” said Mr Alexiou.

He said he was cautiously optimistic about the new generation capacity but warned that improving generation alone may not resolve all of Abaco’s electricity problems.

“I’m going to be more optimistic because we know at least the generation part of it is going to be much more reliable, and I also have faith in the distribution,” he added.

Mr Alexiou compared the electricity system to a highway, arguing that stronger generation will only go so far if the distribution network feeding businesses and communities remains unreliable.

“It’s like you have the main highway to the airport that is in fairly good condition. All the feeders to the highway may not be in great condition,” he said.

“I’m hoping that the big hotels or the big marinas will be able to come off the highway with a decent enough feed that it’s going to be far better than what it was in recent years.  As long as you have the generation fairly stable, hopefully the rest of it will become more stable as well.”

Mr Alexiou also questioned what would happen to existing generators that have been installed on the island, arguing that maintenance has been a major part of Abaco’s power problems.

“What are we doing with these generators that have been put in and that we believe should be running this place? They’re not that old. It was a lack of maintenance,” he said. “I hope they’re not managing this new stuff the same way.”

Mr Alexiou said the private sector involvement in the new facility could improve maintenance, but questioned what the arrangement would ultimately mean for consumers and businesses.

“Who is going to run it? Who’s going to maintain it? If it’s private industry, it stands a chance of being maintained properly. And then the question is, at what cost?” he said.

“The consumer is still paying a lot of it - too much, maybe more than it needs to be - which affects business costs, affects what the hotel has to charge its customers. It’s adding to the cost of doing business.”

Mr Alexiou said greater transparency around the arrangements would also be important.

“I don’t want to say somebody’s making a lot of money out of this or somebody isn’t. I don’t know enough about it, but it leaves all these suspicions when you don’t have accountability or you can’t see anything, any documentation,” said Mr Alexiou.

For Ms McIntosh, however, the immediate priority is seeing the investment translate into more dependable electricity for an island whose tourism businesses cannot afford to repeatedly disappoint visitors.

“They’re putting some resources into it, right? So that’s what we want to see. Talk, talk, talk doesn’t cut it,” she said. “But when you see some resources going into it - major resources - then hopefully, like I said, I am hopeful. We just have to wait and see. But at least there’s some movement in the right direction.”