By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears says the government will have to provide a subsidy to BPL if the company is to avoid raising electricity costs on the Bahamian people.

His comments came after BPL CEO Shevonn Cambridge told The Tribune last month that the company will increase its fuel charge in “the next month or two”.

When asked about the matter yesterday, Mr Sears reiterated the government’s position that it will not cause further economic hardship for struggling Bahamians.

“BPL cannot absorb increases,” he said, “so there are only two options, one is to pass it on to the consumers or for the government to provide a subvention to pay and the Prime Minister has made it very clear that the government is committed to providing a measure of safeguard for the consumer given the fact that, in many homes, people’s lives have been disrupted by employment, through death and illness as a result of the pandemic. We still have a lot of climate refugees in our country, people who were displaced by Hurricane Dorian.”

“... So, we are in a very challenging time in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and we have to be sensitive that so many of our compatriots are hurting and challenged and trying to get their bearings.”

Yesterday, Mr Sears said in view of rising costs, it has become extremely important for the country to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

He said the Davis administration was taking aggressive steps to harness renewable energy, noting the country spends over $1bn yearly on fossil fuel imports.

This comes as some islands, including New Providence, continue to grapple with power outages.

Pertaining to BPL power disruptions, Mr Sears said the company is working to address the issue and has even developed a contingency plan for the summer peak.

He said: “I have asked BPL to prepare a contingency plan and, as you recall, I would have laid it out during my budget contribution. But BPL is acquiring and in fact, has already acquired some of the additional generators so that it will have the capacity during this summer to serve New Providence up to 280 (megawatts) of power which will represent a surplus above what historically has been the peak consumption requirement and this is to ensure that there is redundancy in the system and during the projected highest consumption period, the demand could be met by BPL.”

Last month, Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis told reporters the country was petitioning for the US to lift the sanctions on Venezuela as a means to help alleviate high energy and fuel costs in the Caribbean.

“What is in our control and which I have been doing is letting our voice be heard about some of the initiatives and policies in some of the industrialised world that is causing the increase in oil. Quite apart from the invasion of Ukraine there are also other issues like the sanctions on Venezuela that impacted the cost of fuel, particularly for us,” Prime Minister Davis said at the time.

“So, if those sanctions are lifted it helps and so we have been agitating.

However, a US official recently said his country’s policy has not changed.