By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Eleuthera and Harbour Island residents yesterday voiced fears that Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) will yet again be unable to handle summer demand following another weekend of power outages.

“With the increased temperatures as summer draws near, and persons using more air conditioning to keep cool, as well as the increase in power consumption due to refrigerators and freezers trying to maintain their temperatures, I have grave concerns BPL will be able to maintain a stable supply during summer,” Aldred Albury, former local government representative for the settlement of Current, said. 

“As we all know July, August and September are our hottest months, and we are experiencing these outages in May. I must commend BPL for the tree trimming as well as street light replacement exercises that I have seen them carrying out on the island of Eleuthera.

“We all know that hurricane season is soon upon us, and any trees in the lines can cause a serious concern for stable electricity as well as a fire hazard should any wire spark or break as we have seen in the past. While they have done a commendable job with the tree trimming, I would like to BPL be able to maintain a consistent electricity supply,” he added.

“Whether that means increased generation capacity or replacing electric lines, Eleuthera has a large population of older persons, some of whom are not able to get out of the house. So being home with no electricity and increased summer temperatures is a recipe for disaster. Also, with persons who are diabetic or other ailments and have to have medication refrigerated, it can be a cause of concern.”

Karen Catalyn, owner of The Island Spa in Harbour Island, who has plans to connect the business to the generator at her family’s Tingum Village Hotel next door, said she does not believe BPL can take on the summer demand that is to come.

Donna Whitfield, manager of Princess Street Gallery in Harbour Island, added: “We do not live in this fantasy world. It’s like summer is coming. Summer has come early. We had a long winter. We had no rain, and so it got hot right after that little storm we had last week, Wednesday.

“And so it’s hot now, like, really hot, and everybody’s got their air conditioning on. So I don’t think they’re ever really prepared for that. It’s going to happen. We’ve been conditioned in a way to this understanding that this is what’s going to happen.”

On Saturday, various areas throughout Eleuthera experienced electricity interruptions. “Bahamas Power & Light Company advises that supply to portions of the mainland was interrupted earlier this morning due to a fault on one of the main transformers connected to the rental generation system,” BPL said. “That issue has since been isolated and supply restored.

“A short while ago, the Governors Harbour Airport Intellirupter along the Hatchet Bay south feeder (HBSF) opened. The team is currently patrolling the line to determine the cause. Separately, M&E (mechanical and engineering) is continuing work on a rental unit in Rock Sound that supplies power to customers from Upper Rock Sound to Bannerman Town.

“We are awaiting an estimated restoration time and will provide updates as soon as more information becomes available. We thank customers for their patience as we work to restore full supply.”

BPL then announced that supply had been restored to Harbour Island after “a series of configuration changes to the Dunmore and Narrows feeders.” BPL noted that the Dunmore feeder was restored at 11.45 am and the Narrows Feeder was reconfigured at 11.58 am.

It later explained that “power fluctuations were caused by increased load on the Hatchet Bay feeder”, and that the rental unit had been restored to service.

“This occurred while a rental unit that normally supports the area was undergoing maintenance,” BPL added. “During that time, Hatchet Bay was supplying power directly to Bannerman Town, triggering the Intellirupters to operate as designed in response to the elevated load.”

BPL also experienced issues in Mayaguana last week. Major Bed Bath & Breakfast owner, Mario Murphy, added: “I’ve been back here living now seven years, and we’ve been doing pretty good.”

Leroy Joseph, who owns a rental home in Abraham’s Bay, said the tenant occupying the residence at the time of the outage “just had to ride it out”. He said: “With Abrahams Bay, I don’t know with the generator and the Water and Sewerage generator, because sometimes they have water outages up in that area.

““They’re not like down here in Betsy Bay. Abrahams Bay set up on the capital is flat, so residents have to go get water to flush and stuff like that. So I don’t know if that was the situation, but I hope not [and] that Water and Sewerage had their back-up generator going.”