BPL told to get it together

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Chamber director has called on Bahamas Power & Light to “get it together” over power outages after the latest blackout affecting the eastern part of New Providence.

Debbie Deal, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce director for energy and the environment, told Tribune Business: “These power outages seem to be happening in the same areas over and over again. I think BPL had to admit that yes, there are certain areas that they do need to replace transformers and they do need to do some replacing.”

Ms Deal added: “On Wednesday night there was no storm, not even a hint of wind and just before 9pm the power went off and didn’t come back on until about 7:20am yesterday morning.”

BPL has a Whatsapp community group that Ms Deal is a part of and she said she posted in the group to enquire about the reason behind the power outage in her area and she said she has not gotten a response from BPL, “I do not understand that. If you are going to have a group like this then for the love of God please respond to the people. We need to know what is going on,” Ms Deal said.

Ms Deal was left wondering if it was a traffic accident that created the blackout or if BPL was struck by lightning or any litany of issues from faulty BPL equipment.

Ms Deal added: “Bahamian people can deal with almost anything if we know what is going on, but if we are left in the dark and we have to assume for ourselves we are not going to assume in a positive fashion.

“Our energy company has to get it together and customer service has to be key if you want the rest of us in this country to actually join forces with you and say okay, we know your situation, how can we help? My way of helping is to teach and show us all through the videos that we have and other videos that people have on how to reduce your energy consumption, so that you use less so that BPL can actually provide better, more reliable and safe power to us.”

Ms Deal also focused on collection of overdue payments, saying: “Everybody is moaning and groaning about BPL disconnecting consumers, which we should, but you are cutting off power to people who don’t have the money to pay you and if these were people that have paid you constantly then that’s fine and if these were people that were way over before the virus these weren’t people that were going to pay you anyway. I don’t know if they have gone to the people that owe the bigger bills that they have outstanding and try to collect on those, but I think that is one good reason to have a foreign entity in there doing the collecting because they don’t know anybody and they are not related to anybody.”

Ms Deal said they are advocating to have BPL privatised and to have cabinet taken out of the decision making of BPL, because every time BPL gets into trouble the cabinet bails the company out and with this arrangement BPL will never learn to be efficient.

Comments

Porcupine says...

"Ms Deal added: “Bahamian people can deal with almost anything if we know what is going on, but if we are left in the dark and we have to assume for ourselves we are not going to assume in a positive fashion."
This statement sums up the entire country's performance since independence.

Posted 29 August 2020, 7:52 a.m. Suggest removal

concerned799 says...

BPL will of course never be fixed under public ownership, as there is always just more money to be had from the public purse. Not till that easy train ends will the hard, difficult things be done to fix BPL.

Hard to see how anyone but BPL insiders and the power union that is basically "protected" from any form of wage/pension hardship due to said setup is doing well by the current structure. 100% of Bahamas money can not be siphoned off to the cause of BPL as is happening now/has been happening for ages now. Collective bargaining rights will still remain with a private owner. Power workers in other jurisdictions who work for private power companies are hardly "hard done by".

Posted 29 August 2020, 3:33 p.m. Suggest removal

lovingbahamas says...

The PM, Health Department, BahamasAir, Police, BPL, hospital, health services, Water and Sewer-it's all falling apart-everything the government lays its hands on is screwed up. There is absolutley no planning, no preparation, no fiscal guidance-I guess it is just easier to say that the entire government is inept. And, there is definitely no communication- none-except by the PM who can do a 180 in a day. And, put so many different rules in place and then change them 3 days later so absolutely no one knows what is happening. Wait a minute-maybe that is the plan-keep everyone in the dark. My sister in the US tells me she gets a text on her phone if power goes out about when it is going to be restored. People-this is the year 2020. It isn't supposed to be that tough. Instead of the government worry about selling Our Lucaya, or building a new port in Grand Bahama maybe they could just concentrate on the infrastructure, actually have a hurricane plan and a NEMA that actually does something. Did I mention that "Brave" Davis left the country because the health system is so bad. Maybe he ought to try fixing it!!

Posted 30 August 2020, 3:23 p.m. Suggest removal

Chucky says...

You are correct, the government can’t do anything right. They are completely incompetent; and yet some how in this crazy world, these same fucking morons continue to make the rules to “control the people”.

We need a complete reboot. And should not allow any current government staff or politicians to ever work in government again

Posted 31 August 2020, 11:34 a.m. Suggest removal

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