BY LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Power and Light’s CEO Shevonn Cambridge hit back at former Works Minister Desmond Bannister Tuesday, saying it was disingenuous of him to suggest that the workers maintaining BPL’s Wartsila engines are “unqualified.”

“They are being maintained by the same personnel who were maintaining them when Wartsila operated the plant,” Mr Cambridge said in a statement to The Tribune yesterday. “These employees were hired by BPL at the termination of the management contract with Wartsila, therefore it is disingenuous to suggest that the engines are being maintained by unqualified personnel.”

His statement was in response to Mr Bannister’s accusations of poor maintenance practices at BPL.

Mr Bannister said the protocol for maintaining BPL’s engines changed under the Davis administration, citing this as a reason why load shedding has been needed this summer.

“We have third parties maintaining engines,” said Mr Bannister. “That is wrong, and that is very, very disappointing so that’s the first challenge that they face, and that is something that is caused by them, a problem they created.”

In 2019, BPL acquired seven Wartsila engines to address long-term generation capacity issues, leading then chairman Dr Donovan Moxey to declare an end to the era of load shedding.

Mr Bannister said the engines are among the most efficient in the world and that the government was to blame for much of the problems facing BPL.

He said engine maintenance, for one, should’ve started long before the summer months.

Asked about this yesterday, Mr Cambridge said: “The overhauls were extended due to abnormal wear as they are being run from the time they were installed. BPL has never been able to run all seven units simultaneously.

“Moreover, the engines have had to operate primarily on diesel due to the lack of a boiler and separators to support sustained operation on HFO. As a result, the cost savings that the units were meant to yield have not been realised.”

“In fact, running them on diesel has resulted in higher operational and maintenance costs.”

Mr Cambridge said BPL’s aim is to increase the performance of its existing fleet,” while looking at expanding our generation assets with renewables and engines that utilise less costly and more environmentally friendly fuels.”

We also wish to point out that although the Wartsila’s at Station A have an installed capacity of 132MW, all seven engines have never run simultaneously. Cooling restrictions (auxiliaries mentioned above) have only allowed for five units to run at the same time for a maximum of 90MW output,” he added.