By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Superwash’s newly-opened $3m million laundromat has been unable to get an electricity connection because Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) is not currently accepting any new business applications.

Dionisio D’Aguilar told Tribune Business yesterday that BPL was focusing on its ongoing hurricane restoration efforts, leaving his new Soldier Road location completely off the grid since opening last Friday.

“We got our licensing sorted out, but now we can’t get power,” he said of the new 7,000 square foot site, based at the former Pricebusters location. “We’ve had to run-off generator.

“BPL are not accepting applications for any new businesses. Any new business that wants to come online will have to wait until they restore all existing businesses on the island, before they accept new applications.”

Mr D’Aguilar, mindful of the need to restore all existing New Providence customers, said he did “not want to take them [BPL} away from working on restoring power to people’s houses”.

Yet the inability to obtain a connection to BPL’s energy grid, which requires the installation of a meter, was “all part of the frustration level” being experienced by many Bahamian home and business owners.

And with the economy needing every bit of help it can get to dig itself out from the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Matthew, the inability to provide timely electricity connections for new businesses further adds to the gloom.

“All they’ve got to do is come and put a meter in,” Mr D’Aguilar said. “Thank God we put generator power in before the storm. I don’t know how many thousands of dollars it has cost me to keep the generator going, but it is what it is.”

The Superwash chief, whose new laundromat covers 3,000 square feet of retail space, and 4,000 square feet of warehouse, told Tribune Business that it was “pitiful how slow BPL is moving” on restoration efforts.

He disclosed that he was present at the dock today when 10 trucks belonging to BPL’s manager, PowerSecure International, received a police escort as they made their entrance to New Providence.

“Here we are, almost at day 14, and the back up is just arriving now,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business. “It’s taken 14 days to get the back up.”

PowerSecure, which has a five-year management contract to supervise BPL, worth a minimum $10 million and, potentially, $25 million, was acquired earlier this year for $431 million by the multi-billion utility giant, Southern Company.

Many observers have questioned whether BPL was too slow in seeking assistance from its management partner, and the latter’s owner, or if PowerSecure and Southern delayed. The latter two may also have been kept busy dealing with Matthew’s impact on their home states of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Mr D’Aguilar, meanwhile, reiterated that his “biggest complaint” with BPL was its lack of communication, which left persons in the dark as to the areas it was currently working to restore.

He again called for it to hold regular media and public briefings, using maps of New Providence to show where it was working and its progress, while also employing social media channels.

“This lack of information has got people so frustrated, so angry, especially people in the eastern end of the island,” Mr D’Aguilar said. “I’ve been hearing horror stories from people in the east.”