The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) says customers should expect more blackouts.
BEC released a statement late yesterday advising that the complete shutdown of its system, which triggered an island-wide blackout on Thursday night, was initiated by the failure of a main transmission cable near the Blue Hills Power Station.
"As a result of this event, devices designed to protect the generating plant and to ensure the safety of the general public operated to isolate the failed cable," the statement said.
"This unfortunately resulted in the shutdown of the generating equipment and the loss of supplies to all customers in New Providence and Paradise Island.
"While BEC crews immediately commenced efforts to restore supplies, other challenges resulted in the delay of the return of those critical generator units to service.
"As at 4 p.m. [Friday] several generators remain inactive, which has resulted in a generation shortfall that continues to impact several areas.
"Until this shortfall is addressed the corporation will need to rotate supplies, which may leave those impacted customers without electricity for periods of up to two hours in duration."
The corporation did not say how long it expected the situation to last for.
Thousands of New Providence residents and business establishments suffered significant inconveniences as a result of the blackout, which started after 9 p.m. Thursday and extended into Friday morning.
BEC's Executive Chairman Leslie Miller said BEC will bring in experts over the weekend to help fully understand what triggered the blackout.
Miller said BEC experienced a fault on one of its power lines at its Solider Road sub-station.
"It appears that one of the end of the lines had burned and that tripped," he said.
"That same problem proceeded to Blue Hills Power Station, which is not far from Solider Road.
"The computer then shut down the engines at Blue Hills.
"And then of course you had an overload on the system at Clifton Pier Power Station because of that.
"When this station (Blue Hills) shuts down, you only [have] half the power that you would normally use in New Providence.
"And of course, following that with the cascade, all of Clifton went down, so there was one damn problem after the next."
Miller said he and BEC board member Edward Darville were overseeing repairs between both power stations up until 4 a.m. Friday.
In its statement, BEC noted that once its entire system trips offline it can take some time to make them fully operational again.
Asked whether residents should expect more outages, Miller said he believes "this will be behind us" by Friday afternoon.
He spoke hours before BEC released its statement advising customers to expect more blackouts.
Miller did not provide many details on the experts BEC will fly in, but told The Nassau Guardian he hopes to "sort this situation out, once and for all".
"We are very, very sorry about this situation," said Miller, when contacted for comment.
"I mean these things happen; I hate to have to say that."
He added, "This is now the hurricane season, and this is not a good start for us.
"We are trying to rectify this situation and make sure we are ready for these hot, hot summer months that are ahead of us.
"We have a problem at Blue Hills and we also have problems at Clifton. Three of the big machines are out, and we are trying to get them on."
As of 11 a.m. Friday, around 15 percent of the corporation's customers were still off the grid, Miller said.
But throughout the morning, power dipped on and off.
Impact
Outside BEC's headquarters on Tucker Road yesterday, some customers expressed outrage.
Sandra Hanna, a Market Street resident, said she slept on her porch and when she got up around 6 a.m. her power was still off.
Shacell Hanna, a mother of four, said her family was also forced to spend most of the night outside because of the heat.
"It was awful because where I am, I am way to the back near the beach and mosquitoes were just awful," she said, before going into the corporation to pay her bill.
"But we had to come out because the house was very hot. There was no light until about 3 a.m...We expect a lot better."
Others were more understanding and encouraged BEC to fix the problems quickly.
Willard Cunningham, of Pinewood Gardens, said his power was not restored until around 4 a.m. on Friday.
But Cunningham said Bahamians appear to complain too much about things they cannot control.
"We have challenges on a daily basis," he said. "Some nights you go to bed normal and wake up with pain in your legs.
"You think man-made things won't give us problems?
"There is always room for improvement, but you cannot just put them (BEC) in the black book because something goes contrary. You have to give them a chance."
The Guardian also interviewed a woman standing outside her Seabreeze Lane home with her children on Thursday night.
"At the end of the day, BEC has no direct competition, and we still have to pay them, so I won't even complain," said Lisa Dean, a mother of three.
"But what will it take for the problem to be fixed? Do they realize how difficult it is to look after young children with no power in this unbearable heat?"
Throughout Thursday night, many residents took to social media to express their displeasure with the corporation and the unbearable heat.
One Facebook user said, "BEC owes me a good night's sleep, a fridge and a freezer full of food. Nine hours with no electricity and we pay for this?"
BEC said it will conduct a thorough investigation of this matter to prevent the likelihood of any similar occurrences.
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