By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Power and Light (BPL) said power has been fully restored in parts of New Providence following a series of weekend outages that left customers without electricity for several hours, fueling public anxiety over potential blackouts as temperatures soar and summer energy demand peaks.

The utility provider said the first outage occurred around 3pm Sunday when a vehicle collided with a high-voltage pole on Marathon Road, damaging a 33kV transmission line. The incident tripped a feeder and disrupted service to several communities, including Palmetto Village, Village Road, Montagu, Bernard Road, and Williams Lane. BPL said crews responded immediately and restored service by 4.10pm.

Hours later, a second and unrelated disruption hit the system at 10.16pm when multiple Soldier Road feeders at the Blue Hills Power Station unexpectedly tripped offline. BPL attributed this fault to a gas circuit breaker malfunction tied to a phase-to-ground cable issue. Power to affected areas was restored by 11.10pm.

According to BPL, while the two outages stemmed from separate causes, one external and one internal, the combined impact may have contributed to wider instability across the grid. Full restoration to all impacted customers was completed by 12.30am Monday.

Technicians are continuing to investigate the technical fault at the Blue Hills station to prevent future occurrences.

Though BPL has not confirmed whether the incidents were related to load shedding, the timing has heightened concern. The company faces ongoing scrutiny over its capacity to manage summer electricity demand — a period historically marked by rolling blackouts due to strained generation capacity.

Frustrated customers took to social media following the outages, voicing fears that this summer could bring another wave of prolonged and unpredictable power cuts.