By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

POWER outages in pockets of New Providence yesterday were due to ongoing “generation challenges”, Bahamas Electricity Corporation spokeswoman Arnette Ingraham said.

There were power outages in western New Providence, but Ms Ingraham said power disruptions were not limited to a specific area and they “may very well” have occurred “across the island”.

“We’ve had instances where we’ve had some generation challenges in the last couple of days, and there are instances when the electricity may have been off for other reasons,” she said. “So there’s been several circumstances where we’ve had power disruptions in several different areas, some of them generator related, some of them not. Some of them related to our distribution or transmission lines, and that can be underground or over head.”

“It may not be daily, but to some people it may feel like it’s daily, but the power has gone off,” she said. “Some of them due to generation trips, and some of them due to acute challenges in a particular area. That could mean a pole was knocked down by a driver or we could have challenges with our underground cables.”

Yesterday a resident in western New Providence complained that she is “sick and tired” of BEC. Daphne Miller, a resident of Coral Heights East, said that the corporation’s frequent power cuts have damaged her television. She said “poor people can’t survive” when BEC “spoils” their appliances.

“Last week I woke up in the heat,” she said. “It (the power) came on quarter to 11am. Between quarter to 11 and 2:30am, it had come on and gone off six times. My TV has a green line on it right now, and I don’t know how to take it off. We can’t afford a generator like some people. For BEC to spoil everything you get, this is just ridiculous.

“Something needs to be done about BEC. The thing is, when they spoil your appliances and stuff, if you don’t have a receipt they putting you through all kinds of red tape to try get something from them.”

Ms Ingraham said the frequent power outages could be attributed to “several different issues.” There is a chance, she said, the corporation “may” give Ms Miller “something back” in compensation.

“She has to get her electrician to do an investigation, and they usually compile a report,” Ms Ingraham said. “BEC will come to her home and they would compile a report of their own based on what they find. If it is proven that BEC was at fault on that particular day, the corporation would give her some sort of payment, which is of course depending on depreciation.”

“There are instances when you could have multiple outages in a short period of time, and that usually takes place during the restoration process,” she added. Last month BEC Chairman Leslie Miller said the corporation was considering buying five or six new generators for about $6 million.

He said the purchase of the new generators was in direct response to the continuous blackouts and power outages in New Providence and throughout the Family Islands this summer – and in preparation for Baha Mar being added to the grid.