A top Baha Mar official yesterday confirmed that the resort plans to commission a long-discussed deep water cooling system for its air conditioning system in 2016. Baha Mar Senior Vice President of Administration and External Affairs Robert Sands told NB12 yesterday that he is confident the earlier proposed seawater air conditioning (SWAC) system for Baha Mar would mitigate against the resort's current electricity costs and make the operation more sustainable and economically viable.

"We are still looking at deep water cooling as a form of cooling for our air conditioning system. We are hopeful that we will commission such a system, not upon opening, but some time in 2016," Sands said.

The resort announced a five-year contract for a chilled water plant with DTEC Plant Services, Ltd. in August 2014, which Sands earlier said was the first step in the resort's transition to a complete SWAC system. Regarding the mega resort's wider power needs, Sands said the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) is on track to meet Baha Mar's demand ahead of its launch on March 27 after BEC Executive Chairman Leslie Miller told Guardian Business that BEC is currently engaged in upgrading two of four engines to accommodate Baha Mar. Miller projected that BEC would complete the necessary upgrades by May.

"We are very satisfied that BEC will live up to its obligations to provide the necessary power demand for Baha Mar and we have been working with them for many years to get to this point. The cooperation has worked very well to date.

"There is a need for investment and upgrading. We hold the chairman and BEC to their word and we're very satisfied that they will meet their obligation to supply the power demand for Baha Mar once we are open on March 27. I can say that we have been receiving significant power from BEC to date and they have been living up to their obligations," Sands said.

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