Power cuts over the weekend created frustrations among consumers, disrupting schedules and plunging homes and business establishments into darkness and according to BEC officials, more blackouts will take place over the next two to three days.
General Manager of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation Bradley S. Roberts announced today that the outages are being caused because of generation problems at Blue Hills and Clifton Power stations.
During the past six months, the corporation has been engaged in planned preventative maintenance of generation plants at both power stations in an effort to prepare for the summer peak demand period, Mr. Roberts said.
“However, two major factors have adversely affected our ability to carry out the necessary maintenance, and also meet the required demand,” he said.
The situation has left thousands of consumers fuming over interruptions in power and water supplies at peak periods.
Works and Utilities Minister Bradley Roberts, who addressed a press conference at the corporation’s Tucker Road Headquarters, said that officials are concerned that the problematic #11 generator will continue to force the corporation to resort to load shedding.
Minister Roberts expressed fears that generator #12, which is scheduled to arrive here next month, may have similar problems as #11.
He blamed the problem on the previous administration, but nevertheless offered an apology to the public.
The problem actually rests with four units at Clifton Pier and Blue Hills that contractors and workmen have been trying to restore. The situation, over the weekend and this morning was a disruptive inconvenience to residents all over the island.
BEC Chairman Alfred Jarrett told the Bahama Journal that although two generators were down for maintenance, the newest one commissioned in 1999 blew out, exacerbating the problem.
“While we had two major plants down for regular maintenance, the latest one that was supposed to carry the bulk of that load, # 11 which carries 30 megawatts, blew out …creating an inadequate supply for New Providence,” he said. Mr. Jarrett also said that due to the shortfall of 15 megawatts, the corporation had to share the load throughout the capital by turning off power in different areas.
According to Mr. Jarrett, who visited the Clifton Pier and Blue Hills plants yesterday with Minister of Works and Utilities Bradley Roberts, one of the generators with a 26-megawatt capacity was back in operation yesterday evening.
But around three o’clock this morning a fire on another engine occurred causing more island-wide blackouts.
Mr. Jarrett said that BEC workers have been on the job virtually 24 hours per day since Friday and he expected the problem to be fixed.
“I think we should have everything back in order within the next 24 hours,” he said, but an hour later that prediction had changed.
But up to 10 a.m. yesterday, The Bahama Journal received reports from callers that electricity was still out all over the island.
“This is ridiculous. You can’t even iron your children’s uniform to go to school,” a woman in Yellow Elder Gardens said.
In January, Minister Roberts said that BEC was supposed to have installed a new $36 million, 30-megawatt diesel generator at its Clifton Pier by April 29.
At that time the arrival of the generator was already eight months behind schedule.
Today, Mr. Jarrett blamed the postponement of the arrival of the new generator on the manufacturers who have given various excuses for the delay in shipment of the generator.
“We are now being told that it would be ready between May and June,” he said. “We are holding our breath because that is the one that we have been relying on to carry us through the summer along with an additional one which should be coming on in July l”
Mr. Jarrett also said that the two generators total 53 megawatts and “should give us at least 100 megawatts more than we need to get us through peak loads.”
But Bahamians are seemingly tiring of the same excuses year after year, as load shedding becomes an apparent tradition this time of year.
“This happens every year,” another caller said. “The government has to do something about this.”
By Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
