By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC Works Minister Desmond Bannister has said the cause of Bahamas Power and Light’s recent challenges is a batch of contaminated fuel the power provider recently received, causing engine problems.

This is why BPL on Monday said there were issues with fuel logistics at the Blue Hills Power Plant.

BPL in a statement at the time said Sun Oil, the supplier, assured them that all the necessary steps were being taken to remedy the matter and work was underway jointly to stabilise power supply while corrective action was being taken.

BPL also raised the possibility of there being “short” disruptions in service as a result, adding that customers will be advised on social media, its website bplco.com, or local media if this is the case.

Yesterday, the minister said if any outages occur, it is anticipated that they’ll be short and in isolated areas.

“We are hoping that there are no challenges and outages, but I think that as a precaution BPL has to advise the public,” Mr Bannister said.

“What happens is this: BPL contracts the provision of fuel out to various companies. It’s some companies in The Bahamas that have had these contracts for many, many years and have provided fuel on a reliable basis over those years. So, that has happened for many many years, for decades.

“There is a batch of fuel that came in recently that BPL suspects was contaminated. It was not provided by BPL. It was provided by suppliers. When BPL used this fuel, it caused some challenges with their engines.

“They have gone through a whole bunch of parts — replacing of parts, replacing filters and other challenges — because of this fuel. So, they have to get this fuel out of their engines and be able to get more fuel in quickly and that has been the challenge that they have been facing so they are working now with the supplier to seek to get fuel that is not contaminated. Get it in the system and we are anticipating that things will work out okay.

“If there are outages, they’ll be short, they’ll be in isolated areas, but we don’t anticipate that there is going to be any widespread outages,” he added.

Asked if the supplier will reimburse BPL for its challenges, Mr Bannister said issues like this are always worked out appropriately.

“You have reputable Bahamian companies that have done it for years and BPL will work with them to ensure that whatever the challenges are financially they’ll be worked out. We are more concerned with being able to guide the public and advise the public of possible challenges.”

The company is in the process of analysing how much money it has had to spend in recent weeks to remedy the issue, he said.

He said there are “a lot of new engines in the country” and added that even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country faced no chronic outages over last summer.

“We had a wonderful summer. Everybody was home in the pandemic burning air-conditioning in their houses and we didn’t have the kind of challenges we’ve had in summers past.

“So, we are anticipating the same kind of summer. We just have to work through this challenge,” Mr Bannister said yesterday.