The Tribune

By ANNELIA NIXON and NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Reporters

ELEUTHERA businesses were forced to scale-back operations, with a local hospital also having to defer patient visits, due to prolonged Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) outages that lasted over a four-day period this week and only eased yesterday afternoon.

One business owner estimating a 50 percent drop in business, while the hospital reported a 15 to 20 percent increase in operating costs from constantly running its generator as a result of BPL’s generation challenges at the Hatchet Bay power plant. The latest energy woes, which struck the island’s northern and central regions, involved a near 24-hour outage on Monday.

Dr Arlington Lightbourne, owner of Eleuthera Wellness Hospital & Clinics, said the outages have disrupted diagnostic services and created uncertainty over whether the facility can safely admit patients.

“It’s off as we speak,” he said. “It’s obviously impacting us. We run on the generator, but not all of our services, not all of our equipment can go on generator.” Dr Lightbourne added that some diagnostic equipment, including certain machines used for testing patients, cannot operate while the hospital is relying on back-up power.

The hospital has also had to consume significantly more diesel while keeping its generator running for extended periods, adding to operating costs and placing additional strain on the equipment. Mr Lightbourne estimated that the hospital’s operating costs have increased by 15 to 20 percent over the past several days.

“I’d say a 15 percent, 20 percent increase, just because of the cost of diesel and having purchased much more of it,” he said. “Not to mention the fact that diesel is not always available on the island. So there’s always an issue.”

The power disruptions have also affected patient care. While Dr Lightbourne said the hospital has not had to turn away any critically-ill patients, it has asked some patients to return after power is restored because certain services could not be provided.

“Thankfully, we’ve not had any critical patients we’ve had to turn away, but we have had to ask some patients to return once the power returns,” he said. “We’ve thankfully only had about two incidents where that was necessary so far, and those patients were not critically ill or anything.”

The hospital has opted against admitting some patients in recent days because of uncertainty over how long the electricity will remain available and whether its generator could fail.

“We’ve actually shied away from admitting a few patients in the last few days simply because we’re unsure about what the experience will be for them,” Dr Lightbourne said. “We ended up sending the patients to Nassau.” He said one patient who he would ordinarily have considered admitting was instead sent to New Providence because he could not guarantee reliable power at the facility.

“That’s another major impact it has had,” Dr Lightbourne said. “It has not only caused us to turn away patients who have needed X-rays, but just last night I sent a patient to Nassau who I would have probably admitted simply because I don’t have any security over the power situation and whether or not the generator will fail on me at some point.”

The cost of keeping the generator operating is compounded by the price and availability of diesel on Eleuthera. “If it’s high in Nassau, it’s at least one-and-a-half times that price in Eleuthera,” Dr Lightbourne said. “So we’re not talking about a little bit of money.”

He added that the island’s electricity problems are not new, but the current outages have been particularly severe. “This is not an uncommon problem, but this is particularly severe,” Dr Lightbourne said.

He added that Eleuthera’s power problems stem from both generation capacity and the island’s transmission infrastructure, including power lines and vegetation. He argued that the island’s growing economy warrants greater infrastructure investment.

“Eleuthera is no longer a small little island with 50 people on it,” Dr Lightbourne said. “It’s a booming economy that has a hospital; the only Family Island in the country with one outside of Freeport. It’s one of the strongest GDP per capita in the country, and so Eleuthera should not be treated like everyone else.”

He said the issue requires greater national attention and investment, while acknowledging the efforts of BPL workers on the ground. “I do want to make clear, though, because I see the BPL people on the ground working,” Dr Lightbourne said. “I would never want anything I say to disparage or make it seem as though they’re not doing their best.”

Dr Lightbourne said BPL workers have been communicating with the public and responding to outages, including working overnight to restore service. “They’re doing their job, but they’re doing their job with very old equipment and supplies that they wouldn’t have had to work so hard if it was a more modernised system,” he added.

Nahla Sands, who operates a pet grooming and minding business from Palmetto Point, said her area had been placed on a load shedding rotation with power off for up to four-and-a-half hours at a time prior to BPL completing all repairs by yesterday afternoon.

“As a small business owner, it is costing me business, it is costing me money, and I just cannot plan my day because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “It’s draining, it’s mentally exhausting. The bills are super high and, on all of them, they are not taking anything off.

“Last year was the absolute worst. This year I kind of flexed myself a bit because, honestly, I thought I waas going to lose it last year. I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t let BPL do that to me so I made myself more flexible, but it’s not getting better.”

Juanita Pinder, owner of Office General in Governor’s Harbour, said her business has experienced repeated outages since Monday evening, forcing her to close temporarily and operate manually when possible. The business does not have a generator.

“When the electricity is off, there’s nothing that we can do,” Ms Pinder said. “No printing services. My POS system goes with power, so that goes down.”

While staff can continue serving some customers manually, Ms Pinder said the process creates additional work because every transaction has to be entered into the point-of-sale system once electricity returns.

“So it’s like doing double work,” she said. “So it’s a lot.” The disruption comes during one of the company’s busiest periods, with customers seeking back-to-school supplies and information.

“This is a busy season for us,” Ms Pinder said. “We’re back to school. I’m still dealing with customers who ringing me and texting and WhatsApping all day for information.”

The outages have also forced Office General to close early at times because of the heat inside the building. Ms Pinder said the business was able to resume operations when power returned.

She said the disruption is particularly difficult for customers travelling from across Eleuthera and nearby islands to access the business.

“We have customers that come here from Waterford,” she said. “That’s like the end of Eleuthera, in the southern part of Eleuthera. We have customers in Bannerman Town and all over. We have customers that come from Harbour Island and Spanish Wells.”

Some customers travel about an hour to reach the business, she said, meaning a power-related closure can result in a wasted trip. “I mean, thank God we have a mobile phone,” Ms Pinder said. “If they call us, we could say, well, we won’t be back until a certain time, but it’s an inconvenience.”

Ms Pinder estimated that Office General’s business has fallen by at least 50 percent since the outages began. “I would say at least 50 percent because here it is some people are not even coming out because they say, ‘I can’t come all the way there, not knowing whether you’re there’.”