By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

WORKS and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears said the cost of restoring power to North Andros after last week’s catastrophic fire at Bahamas Power & Light’s Nicholl’s Town plant is about $600k.

He said the costs include purchases for generation and auxiliary parts and shipment fees.

BPL’s efforts to fully restore power to North Andros are continuing.

Mr Sears claimed the company had restored power for 90 per cent of its customers and that the remaining 10 per cent should have their power back on without interruption by today.

“They have acquired new engines from M&E,” he told reporters. “They have transferred engines out of Exuma, and as of present, 80 per cent of the homes and residents in North Andros have power.”

“Now the 10 per cent, there have been load sharing, and I’m advised that by tomorrow, which is Thursday, that that ten per cent, they’re working very hard to get that last ten per cent online full time.”

He said the cause of the fire is still being investigated.

During a communication in the House of Assembly, he discussed challenges BPL encountered trying to restore power to the island.

He said an incident involving bought contaminated fuel caused a 1.2-megawatt unit to shut down just after midnight on Tuesday, prompting a power outage.

“The one-megawatt unit that was not fuelled from this source and the 1.6-megawatt unit was not started,” he said. “This resulted in outages for all areas of North Andros except Nicholl’s Town and Conch Sound.”

“While the 1.2-megawatt unit requires fuel injector replacement, the 1.6-megawatt unit that was impacted by the contaminated fuel was repaired, and customers were incrementally brought on to the supply starting at around 3pm on Tuesday.”