Friday, October 21, 2016
By SANCHESKA DORSETT
Tribune Staff Reporter
sdorsett@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMAS Power and Light has temporarily suspended disconnections on overdue accounts in an effort to provide relief to customers after the passage of Hurricane Matthew, according to Corporate Communications Manager Arnette Ingraham.
However, the company is encouraging customers to “pay their bills by the due date” to avoid an interruption in supply when disconnection activities resume.
Mrs Ingraham told The Tribune that BPL has extended the payment deadline for this billing cycle to give customers “more time to pay”.
Bills will now be due in December rather than October. She also explained that this month’s bill is an estimate “using the average consumption” because employees were not able to read meters during the first few days of October, as is customary, because of the passage of Matthew.
“Our next bill will be an actual meter reading that will reflect your usage for the period when power was off as a result of the storm. All that means is that, if your consumption pattern hasn’t changed, then your next monthly bill should be lower, depending on the days you did not have power,” she said.
“Additionally, we have suspended disconnections for this period but encourage our customers to ensure they pay their bills by the due date to avoid an interruption in supply when we resume disconnection activities. We also encourage any customer who may have difficulty paying their bill to come in to one of our customer service centres to speak to a BPL representative.”
In a video on BPL’s Facebook page last week, CEO Pamela Hill said the company realises this time is frustrating for many Bahamians and BPL will do all it can to ease the hardship.
“Our work is great but our commitment to you, our customers, is greater,” Ms Hill said last week. “Just as you did for Hurricane Joaquin and the hurricanes before, I know that we will rebuild a stronger Bahamas after hurricane Matthew.”
Comments
Gotoutintime says...
How the heck can "your next bill reflect your usage for the period when the power was off". Unless I'm reading this wrong please tell me how can I use power if the power is off??
Posted 21 October 2016, 3:41 p.m. Suggest removal
ohdrap4 says...
SHE SHOULD HAVE SAID--' YOUR USAGE OR LACK THEREOF.
my bill was 15% less than last month.
Posted 21 October 2016, 5:58 p.m. Suggest removal
alfalfa says...
What a joke. I paid mine yesterday (I was one of three people on line), and found out that my bill was higher than last month, which was the highest for the year, as they had added the fuel surcharge increase (which according to them, does not make your bill higher). Can anyone figure out what the hell BPL means, and what they are doing? I guess I am getting a bit slow as I age, but I still remember how it feels to be shafted.
Posted 21 October 2016, 5:10 p.m. Suggest removal
sheeprunner12 says...
BEC is like insurance ............ it never loses ........... those meters are rigged
Posted 21 October 2016, 6:08 p.m. Suggest removal
Well_mudda_take_sic says...
If Pam Hill is prepared to engage in the same foolishness that Leslie Miller had going on for years at BEC by keeping the lights on for favoured customers who traditionally do not pay their power bill, then she will just have to deal with the moral fallout inflicted on BPL's cashflow. My advice to all BEC customers who usually pay their power bill on time is to do like me: Stop paying your bill until all customers are treated equally without favouritism of any kind. This foolishness of supplying free power to select customers in exchange for their support of the PLP is what crushed BEC financially to begin with. Pam Hill won't tell you this, but it was the failure of successive Crooked Christie and equally crooked Ingraham led administrations to pay the power bills of government departments, agencies and corporations, totalling more than $150 million, that effectively resulted in the demise of BEC and the ridiculous state of our country's power infrastructure today.
Posted 22 October 2016, 11:27 a.m. Suggest removal
DDK says...
I have noticed that in many of the corporation and Government department offices, the thermostats are set extremely low and the units run constantly, 24/7. Go figure. Not only do they not pay for consumption, they do no seem to have the slightest idea of the meaning of the word conservation.
Posted 22 October 2016, 1:55 p.m. Suggest removal
sheeprunner12 says...
I believe PowerSecure will walk away from this "hot mess" like the Canadians did from the dump
Posted 22 October 2016, 3:46 p.m. Suggest removal
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