By KEILE CAMPBELL

and DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Staff Reporters

HUNDRED of residents in Harbour Island and Mayaguana were left in the dark yesterday as island-wide power outages caused widespread disruption and renewed frustration.

According to Bahamas Power and Light  (BPL), the outage on Harbour Island began around 12:12 pm after rental generation units provided by Aggreko tripped offline due to an overvoltage fault. Power was gradually restored across most of the island by 2pm, with remaining areas expected to come back online later in the day.

Approximately one hour later, at 1.25pm, Mayaguana experienced a full outage caused by overheating in one of its generation units. BPL said additional generation personnel from Long Island were being mobilised to carry out repairs, with restoration expected by Thursday morning.

Residents and business owners on Harbour Island, however, told The Tribune they had been grappling with intermittent outages for days prior to the official island-wide disruption.

According to BPL, the outage on Harbour Island began around 12.12pm after rental generation units provided by Aggreko tripped offline due to an overvoltage fault.

“It has been the last two days, and it has been crazy,” said Robert Arthur, who operates a bakery and food retail business on the island. “In this area and the area to the south of the island, power has been going off for us 30 to 45 minutes at a time. Today was probably the worst. It has been on and off from earlier today.”

Mr Arthur said the outages damaged equipment in his store and created additional strain due to diesel limitations for generators, which most residents rely on.

“Everybody owns a generator,” Mr Arthur said. “If it is for longer periods of time, then you are really in trouble, because the island can only hold so much diesel.”

BPL said the outage occurred as part of broader ongoing work to address generation and distribution issues on Harbour Island. The company has promised continued updates as restoration progresses.

Despite these assurances, residents cited long-standing issues with the island’s electrical infrastructure, limited access to skilled technicians, and what they described as subpar conditions at the local power facility.

“It looks like a diesel ship graveyard,” Mr Arthur said. “It is a health hazard. It is a biohazard. There is no security whatsoever. Just a bunch of generators piled up on the side of the road.”

Ryan Austin, who along with his wife Gem owns and operates COCOA Coffee House on Harbour Island, said their business was protected by a backup generator, but acknowledged ongoing instability in the island’s electricity supply.

“Yesterday it was at least five times,” Mr Austin said of the outages. “It happens so often we are just used to it. You just make other plans.”

He said Wednesday’s outage was less severe for the coffeehouse, but added that at his residence, meetings were repeatedly disrupted and appliances needed rebooting.

Aldred Albury, who works in Harbour Island, said the outage was not just limited to Harbour Island as reported by BPL. He said outages have also been affecting other parts of mainland Eleuthera, including the Current, where he lives.

He said residents are very upset about the situation. “There’s a BPL WhatsApp hotline group chat where people have been complaining that ‘it’s extremely hot, the electricity keeps going off’, and there’s no real resolution — just Band-Aid fixes,” he said. “One person even said BPL owes them a couple of days’ pay.”

A resident who asked to remain anonymous said the outages are wearing people down. “They told us the issue would be resolved last September. It got a little better for a while, but now it’s happening again,” she said. “What is the real issue? Was it ever fixed? Do they know how to fix it?”

She reported that there have been outages each day for the past week. “For me it is frustrating because I can’t get any work done.” She said it is hot, and her generator is not working. “We should not have to be relying on a generator because the average person cannot afford one.”

Rickey Mackey said they have one of the largest food stores on the island which has been significantly impacted by the constant outages.

“The power has been going off and on all day, and each time it happens, it is affecting your equipment. A lot of times when it comes back with a surge of electricity, equipment is being negatively affected. What  I can’t understand is why the frequent outages? What seems to be the problem? The constant off and on and unavailability of reliable electricity is a major problem not just North Eleuthera, but the entire island.”

Mr Mackey said Water and Sewerage, BTC and Cable Bahamas have similar issues.

He said: “It should not happen for an island, especially in North Eleuthera which is upbeat, upscale, growing economy. And if the people, especially our visitors and winter residents, did not have a love for this island, we would be up the ----creek.

Mr Mackey noted that several large residential construction projects are underway on the island, increasing electricity demand, a challenge BPL should have anticipated.

The Tribune understands that some Harbour Island residents received outage notices via BPL’s communication channels, though others questioned whether the updates were timely or detailed enough.

Mr Arthur, while acknowledging the presence of a BPL group chat used to share information, said the overall communication remained limited.

The dual outages raised questions among residents about infrastructure resilience heading into the summer, when demand typically increases.

“Wait until another three weeks when the kids are out of school,” Mr Austin said. “Then we will really see what happens.”