By KEILE CAMPBELL


Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net


BAHAMAS Power and Light has appealed to government agencies, large businesses and ordinary customers to reduce their reliance on the electricity grid as New Providence’s system approaches capacity, with overloaded circuits and transformers already contributing to outages across the island.


BPL Chief Operating Officer Anthony Christie said several circuits were overloaded, transformers were operating at peak capacity and the utility was being forced to relieve pressure on equipment to prevent further damage.

Mr Christie said the utility was asking customers to help manage demand by reducing their electricity consumption, particularly their use of air conditioning.


“Everyone can play a part in this,” he said. “We hear talks of higher bills, etc so we want to make sure that everyone is aware that you can control that, and we want you to help us help you provide the service that we're supposed to do.”


During a press briefing at BPL’s System Control Room, he added: “We've seen an increase in demand, and we're approaching our capacity. A lot of our circuits are overloaded. Transformers are at their peak capacity.”


He said BPL was balancing loads and relieving circuits where necessary as it responded to outages that he described as uncommon during the summer.


“We do have a number of other areas that have some overloading situations, and again, we're in a period of high temperatures, high demand on our systems so we're seeing some outages occur that are not common or not frequently seen by us during the summer period,” he said.


He also urged larger customers and government entities to reduce the pressure they place on the system.

“We're also asking larger customers, government entities to assist us in managing their demands so that we can again control what we have and improve our service that we deliver to the customers.”


Deputy Director of Energy Verron Darville said ministries and government agencies had been instructed to switch to backup generators during periods of peak demand so more electricity would remain available for residents and small businesses.


“By freeing up some of this demand on the grid by the government agencies and by the large private customers, we have more energy available for our residential and small businesses,” he said.


Mr Darville said the Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Aviation had conducted energy audits of government agencies and large private consumers over the past three years to identify ways they could reduce consumption during periods of high demand.
He said recommendations were made according to the function and energy profile of each building.


The warnings came as BPL responded to several equipment failures and overload conditions across New Providence.


A transformer overload in Palmdale disrupted electricity to businesses and nearby homes on Friday, with Mr Christie warning that repairs could take some time.


BPL said the outage affected Rosetta Street near Geoffrey Jones & Co. and Grace Funeral Home. 

Witnesses said the transformer smoked, caught fire and later exploded before firefighters extinguished the blaze after BPL disconnected the power.


One nearby business continued operating with a generator, but other businesses without backup electricity were forced to close.


Mr Christie described the conditions as an unprecedented heat wave and said increased air-conditioning use had driven demand higher over recent months.