By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian tourism operator estimates it lost 15 percent of US Independence Day sales due to Friday’s electricity woes with yesterday’s power outage continuing to disrupt commerce during one of the busiest periods for American visitors.

For businesses already reeling from Friday’s Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) outage, which occurred one day before the US Independence Day holiday, Sunday’s interruption compounded frustrations over lost revenue, rising electricity costs and recurring service disruptions.

Cheryl Cambridge, owner of Cheryl’s Bahamas Taxi & Tours, said the Friday outage struck during a crucial booking period when US visitors traditionally make last-minute reservations for the holiday weekend.

“I’m losing about 15 percent of my business right now,” Ms Cambridge said. She explained that about 90 percent of her bookings are received by e-mail, leaving her business at a standstill once power was lost.

“Electricity is off by my office and my girls can’t get to finish,” she said. “This a busy weekend. I am angry right now. My staff sitting outside, and they haven’t done the spreadsheet for tomorrow. There were a lot of e-mails. It’s the Fourth of July. A lot of people are last-minute booking, and they can’t get to finish their work.”

The outages also affected operations beyond the office. “This Fourth of July weekend we’re busy, and right now the traffic is a nightmare,” Ms Cambridge said. “We were late picking up our guests because the lights are off, and got to be careful when the lights are off.”

She said that when power was restored, her company started receiving multiple customer inquiries but, by then, many prospective clients had already booked elsewhere.

“When the electricity came on on Friday we were bombarded with e-mails,” Ms Cambridge said. “But when we contacted the people, it was already too late. They had already booked with other companies because we took too long to answer them.

“My office was off for three hours. That was a crucial time that they were answering e-mails. The last-minute people, if you don’t catch them, they’re searching around. If we don’t answer them right away, they’re searching someplace else.”

Sunday’s outage further compounded those losses. Ms Cambridge said her business loses business whenever power fails because customers expecting immediate responses simply move on to competitors. She also questioned recent increases in electricity bills while companies continue to contend with unreliable service.

“My light bill at the office went up almost $300,” she said, adding that her household electricity bill had also increased by roughly the same amount despite maintaining similar electricity usage. Ms Cambridge said recurring outages have also forced businesses to invest in surge protectors after previously losing appliances to power fluctuations.

“We lost a brand new fridge before,” she said. “Even inside our office all the computers have surge protectors for the same reason.” Ms Cambridge said businesses located along Shirley Street, and in the Palmdale area, experience energy outages too frequently.

“Anyone who has a business on Shirley Street can attest to what I’m saying,” she said. “The electricity goes off too much… We lose, and no one will come and say this is to give back for our losses. We can never get back what we lost.”

Ms Cambridge urged more business owners to publicly voice their concerns. “People are afraid to speak out, but we need to speak out,” she said. “We pay a lot of money for Business Licences. We pay a lot of money on VAT, so we should definitely be given more for our money. We’re not getting our money’s worth.”

Yesterday’s BPL outage affected multiple areas across New Providence. BPL said preliminary assessments found that a lightning strike caused an explosion at its Blue Hills power station, disrupting supply to the island’s electricity network.

Jeffery Davis, BPL’s director of energy supply, said: “At 10:06am this morning, amidst reports of severe lightning activity in the area, there was a system disturbance that impacted all generation at Blue Hills power station and some other generation at the Clifton Pier power station, with accompanying reports of an explosion at 33 KV substation B at Blue Hill power station.

“After the area was declared safe, a team inspected and discovered a severe fault on Ernest Street South Circuit at Substation B at Blue Hills power station, and then immediately began efforts to restore supply.

“Due to ongoing upgrades on our main interconnector, we weren't able to immediately supply auxiliaries at Blue Hills power station to begin the restoration process. But the team was able to successfully back feed through an alternative circuit, and we are now in the process of restoring the assets at Blue Hills power station, so we hope to have the system restored as soon as possible and we'll update as necessary.”