AN early morning electricity problem at the Clifton Station is being blamed for an island-wide outage that took place this morning.

According to BEC Chairman Leslie Miller, a preliminary investigation has shown that when the power output was transferred to the Blue Hill sub-station, that facility could not take the load, resulting in a power trip and the island-wide blackout.

Thousands of residents across New Providence were hit with the lights going out around 8.45am and reports coming in from Palmdale, the west of the island and Mount Tabor that power was off, affecting homes, businesses and traffic lights.

Power restoration led to some areas being turned on by 9.03am. Mr Miller added that the company expected to have the entire island back on before 10.30am.