By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) has promised Harbour Island hotels and businesses that “everything should be fixed” by month’s end following the island’s recent extended power outages.

The state-owned utility’s technical team, leads and executives met with Briland hoteliers on July 5 to discuss the ongoing electricity woes plaguing the island. BPL, in a statement, reiterated its aim to provide the tourist destination with reliable power during peak season and the higher energy load demand from hotels, restaurants and residents.

It added that the meeting “follows several months of challenges linked to aging equipment, technical constraints,and delayed part deliveries”. However, BPL promised that it has “made measurable progress to reinforce the island’s energy infrastructure”.

One generation unit has been restored to full service, BPL expects another “to return by the end of next week following the arrival of key components from the US”. Six Aggreko rental units, providing 4.8 MW (mega watts) of support, are available while capacity and radiator repairs are underway to “bring output closer to the full 6 MW” that Harbour Island needs.

BPL said it received 100,000 gallons of fuel on-island last week to guarantee generation stability through the rest of July. A new Intellirupter unit will arrive within the following week, “which will allow for better monitoring, fault isolation and control across the distribution system”.

Harbour Island was also promised an increase in BPL field support and staffing, as well as “additional personnel from our roving crew to provide coverage for both generation and T&D (transmission and distribution) operations”.

“As part of its ongoing improvement strategy, BPL is also reviewing transformer and load balancing needs across the island and working with hotel properties to assess real-time usage and potential system strain. With this data, the corporation aims to tailor upgrades more effectively and prevent costly equipment failures caused by power fluctuations,” BPL said.

“Stakeholders also received an update on BPL’s renewable energy transition, including the planned introduction of microgrid solutions and low-emission gas-based generation technology for Harbour Island through the recently signed power purchase agreement (PPA) with Outlier Energy, which promises quieter, cleaner and more resilient energy delivery in the years ahead.”

Lee Prosenjak, Valentine’s Resort and Marina’s managing director, said: “Bottom line is they say that everything should be fixed and in action, and they have plenty of power here by the end of the month. So that’s what they have said…

“Essentially, what they anticipated is that Harbour Island needs six and a half to seven mega watts (MW) of power, and right now they’ve only been producing 4.8. So no big surprise that things aren’t happening.

“That might be enough to keep up overnight when not everybody has all their appliances on and everything like that, or air conditioning as much, or things, but it’s clearly not enough during the day, and power has continued to be out today and stuff like that. But there’s promises of this unit will be fixed, and that’ll be one thing we need to figure out: How to put two-and-a-half MW online because that’s a unit that we own…”

Mr Prosenjak said BPL spoke of a plan that would have another plant in the vicinity of Three Islands Ferry Dock, adding: “Who knows how long that is, 18 to 24 months, before that can come online and that could be a reality.”

He said “their price on that was probably about $1.5m per megawatt that they’re going to do. So that would be about a $9m or $10m investment that they have to make”. According to Mr Prosenjak, BPL said that $93m will be invested across the Family Islands.

“It sounds great. All of it sounds great, but let’s talk about reality, and power has been out three or four times today, already at Coral Sands and Dunmore and Pink Sands. Ours hasn’t fluctuated, as I knock on wood, but it’s been out on a third of the island already three times today,” he added.

In the interim, hotels and resorts will continue to switch to stand-by generation when needed as well as provide timely updates. Mr Prosenjak stressed the importance of the updates, and gave praise for BPL over the July 4 holiday weekend, which tends to be a busy period for the tourism sector.

“What I need to know is, if you know that the power is going to go off, ahead of time you got to tell us, please,” he said. “If you need us to go on to generator power give us as much heads up as we can so that we can know that we’re going to take the load. And then tell me how long. Is this a one hour thing? Is this a three hour thing?

“Is this an overnight thing because it’s going to be an extended period, so don’t plan on coming back online. We can’t tell you when so, therefore, you should plan on this indefinitely. Somehow, it all worked over the fourth of July, which was a very busy weekend on the island, of course. And on the fourth itself, we were sold out, the rooms and the marina. So, I was like, good job.”

And, with resorts having to use more generator fuel, Mr Prosenjak said BPL did not reject the idea of a possible rebate or reimbursement, adding that officials said they “could maybe look into something like that”.

As for reimbursement for damaged equipment, Mr Prosenjak having recently lost two bar refrigerators less than 60 days old with a third “on the fritz”, he said his $1,300 commercial blender also “went out”.

“I’m up to $15,000, $16,000 worth of equipment that’s now dead, or on the way, almost dead,” Mr Prosenjak said. “And again, the duty, the VAT, the shipping on top of those like that, that’s not just $16,000 worth of equipment.

“If I have to buy it all again, pay the same VAT, pay the same duties and pay the shipping again, all-in that cost me $25,000 or something like that to get $15,000 worth of equipment here. So now I got to spend it again.

“There was no confirmation or denial of that, to be like, ‘Sorry, you’re out of luck.’ But they also didn’t say, ‘Okay, we’ll take care of it,’ or ‘Give us the exact receipts, and we’ll give you a credit on your account for that much’ or any of that sort of stuff.”

Noting that he’s willing to give BPL a shot, Mr Prosenjak added “it was a lot of good accountability being taken” and communication “has been really good”.