By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Union leaders yesterday warned that New Providence residents and businesses were facing a long, hot summer unless “challenges” at Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) main Clifton Pier power plant were rapidly addressed.

Clinton Minnis, the Bahamas Electrical Utility Managerial Union’s (BEUMU) president, said consumers would continue to endure summer blackouts unless the deficiencies - which he did not identify - were addressed.

Speaking with Tribune Business, Mr Minnis said: “The public may have been seeing some outages, and it is because we are having some challenges, especially at Clifton Pier.

“We need to get it together very soon. The summer is in, you can feel it, and that means that the demand is going to continue to increase.”

On February 9, PowerSecure signed a five-year management services agreement with the Government to run BPL, the Bahamas Electricity Corporation’s (BEC’s) newly-created operating subsidiary.

Then, on February 25, PowerSecure  announced that the Atlanta-based utility giant, Southern Company, would  acquire it for $431 million.   PowerSecure will now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Company.

Mr Minnis, who said the appointment of a new BPL chief executive is expected to be announced soon, said: “All the tweaks that need to be made, all the things that need to be cleaned up and dealt with, need to be done before the end of this month. That’s the only way we can guarantee the public that the summer will be free of blackouts.”

Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis said that PowerSecure’s business plan was “substantially completed”, with “one or two tweaks” being made on the issue of fuel hedging. 

He added that despite the recent acquisition of PowerSecure by Southern Company, he did not anticipate any immediate downsizing of staff.