By LEANDRA ROLLE


Tribune Chief Reporter


lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER another weekend of power outages across parts of New Providence and the Family Islands, Prime Minister Philip Davis will address the nation tonight on the ongoing challenges at Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) and concerns over the utility’s reliability.

His address comes amid a bruising summer for BPL, which has struggled to provide reliable electricity amid repeated outages and mounting public criticism over disruptions to electricity supplies.

In Grand Cay, residents were hit by another wave of extended power outages after enduring a seven-day outage last week.

Although power was restored to the island early Tuesday, residents said the supply remained inconsistent.

The island was plunged into darkness again Thursday night and has remained without power since, forcing many residents to rely on generators to keep essential appliances running.

Residents who spoke to The Tribune yesterday said this is the worst they’ve ever seen it.

“We spend like $40 a gas per day. Some residents spend maybe more because their generators may be bigger,” the resident said. “A lot of people are frustrated about it.”

The ongoing outages are affecting residents’ quality of life while also disrupting their back-to-school preparations.

Barry, another longtime resident, described the situation as a “nightmare”.

He said he spends about $150 a day on gasoline to power three households — his rental property, his own home and his stepmother’s house.

He said the island has been welcoming many tourists, but he recently had a cancellation after the visitors heard about the ongoing power problems.

“We have so much tourists that love this place but you can’t blame them because they want to be comfortable. The power situation has put us in a chokehold.”

BPL initially blamed the prolonged interruption on a major mechanical failure of the island’s existing generator.

The power company had expected a replacement generation unit to provide relief, but said over the weekend that the unit requires repairs and testing before it can be deployed.

Grand Cay was not the only Abaco community to experience power disruptions.

In Guana Cay, BPL attributed outages to two separate cable faults, including one subsea fault in the southern part of the island.

Yesterday, BPL said repairs to the subsea fault have been completed, but restoration work on an underground cable fault in North Guana Cay was still ongoing.

The utility company also reported outages in Dundas Town yesterday evening, though no cause had been identified up to press time.

Meanwhile, in New Providence, residents in certain communities also endured outages over the weekend.

Planned outages were reported in Cowpen Road, Faith Gardens, Golden Gates and Carmichael Road to facilitate system upgrades.

BPL attributed other disruptions to tripped feeders, tree-trimming exercises and other planned events to prevent system overloads.

The sustained failures also comes amid internal fighting at BPL, with unions opposing a new overtime policy they say breaches their contract.

The Tribune exclusively reported last week that three employees in the fuel and performance department collectively received more than $600,000 in overtime between May 2025 and April 2026.

The Davis administration has said it spends about $20m a year on overtime, calling the excessive overtime fees “unacceptable” and “unsustainable.”

It has since introduced new rules that would cap planned overtime, subject employees who repeatedly hit overtime limits to management review and require senior scrutiny when overtime exceeds specified proportions of a worker’s salary.

The Bahamas Electrical Workers Union has responded by filing a trade dispute and instructing workers to work to rule — working only their normal or standard hours of work until further notice.