By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

DARKNESS shrouded the Lynden Pindling International Airport’s three terminals for a short time yesterday as in-house generators failed to activate after a Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) service disruption which affected several areas of New Providence.

The United States departures terminal, international arrivals and the domestic and international departures terminals, experienced a loss of electricity for up to 15 minutes according to Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) officials. However, airport workers stationed at domestic departures said there was no power for around 20 minutes.

NAD spokesperson Shonalee Johnson said: “We are still trying to determine why power wasn’t immediately restored and exactly how long it took for the generators to kick in. The first terminal to come on was the US departures terminal and the loss of power happened at 2.08 pm.

“All systems have been restored, except for the baggage system which had to be done manually for a bit.” She was unable to say whether or not the interruption caused flight delays.

Arnette Ingraham, BEC’s public relations officer, explained that an engine at Blue Hills tripped leaving customers in areas including Fire Trail, Carmicheal Road, East Street South, Pinewood Gardens, Market and Palmetto Streets, Marshall Road, Sea Breeze and Imperial Park without power. She said customers were inconvenienced for about 45 minutes when electricity went off at around 1.45pm.

“One of the engines at Blue Hills tripped,” she told the Big T. “That engine operates the under frequency, which means that it dropped the load to protect the system and that caused a number of areas to go off. It was not a generator challenge. It was just a disturbance in the system that could have been caused for any number of reasons. We won’t know today what happened but it is being investigated.”

This latest power outage same after thousands of BEC customers were left without electricity for more than eight hours on Monday because of “generator challenges” at the Blue Hills plant. It interrupted the supply to 50 per cent of customers in eastern, western and some parts of central New Providence.

Guests at Atlantis on Paradise Island were also inconvenienced for some time due to the cuts, with power not being restored to parts of the hotel until 4pm.

According to BEC sources, a cable blew between the Big Pond substation and the Blue Hills Power Station causing the initial power outages in eastern and southern New Providence.