By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Michael Pintard said Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’ comments about BPL’s wartsila engines in the House of Assembly last week were “shamefully wrong” and conflict with the account of BPL’s CEO, Shevonn Cambridge.

Mr Davis said on Wednesday that Wartsila’s engines “never worked properly” and described the situation as “rotten”. Mr Pintard criticised both Mr Davis and Minister of Works and Utilities Alfred Sears. 

 “The prime minister seeks to run from the fact that the increase of cost of electricity is directly related to his and Minister Sears’ bad decision making, which they sought to hide then and seek to hide now,” Mr Pintard said.

 “The prime minister’s assertion that the Station A Wartsila plant never worked fully is not correct. The log files would show that all seven engines were running simultaneously when load demands required.”

 Mr Pintard challenged the prime minister to bring the log files for the Warstila plant to the House of Assembly.

 He said Mr Davis has failed to provide a comprehensive plan for BPL.  

“Our people are facing higher temperatures, higher electricity costs with much lower chances of help from Davis and Sears,” he said.

 He criticized the administration for cancelling a contract that allowed Wartsila to maintain the engines.

 “By cancelling the contract with Wartsila and replacing them with BWSC, a company that is not a certified Wartsila third-party service provider, the Davis administration has put the integrity of those engines into question both in the short and the long-term,” he claimed.

 BPL’s CEO Mr Cambridge told The Tribune last week that the problem with Wartsila’s engines exists because the original plans for them were changed after two Clifton Pier units were destroyed in 2018.

 He said BPL’s officials, rushing to restore reliable power, installed the engines in a repurposed building rather than a new facility and reduced the layers of elements needed to run the machines optimally.