Several residents expressed outrage yesterday over the impending price increase for electricity.
Last Friday, Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) Executive Chairman Leslie Miller said customers can expect an increase in the fuel surcharge of their bills.
Three generators at the Clifton Pier Power Station failed last week, leading to rolling blackouts -- the latest in a series of countless power shortages this summer.
Miller said the Blue Hills Power Station was operating at full capacity to meet the demand, which will cost BEC customers more money due to the more expensive fuel that the gas turbines burn.
Jone Trer, a resident of Lincoln Road, asked how BEC could dare charge more when it still owes her money for a flat screen television that was damaged during a recent power outage.
Trer said she is not prepared to pay.
"Is that just supposed to be my loss?" she asked.
"We just have to live with it. I don't think it's fair. Something needs to be done."
Timothy Williams, a resident of Imperial Park, said BEC is "adding insult to injury".
He said BEC has made residents "suffer" this summer and now it wants to charge people more for its poor service.
"As far as price, they should not have to go up," Williams said.
"They need to do what's in favor of the Bahamian people.
"People can't afford higher BEC bills between the devil and the high blue sea."
Raquel Adderley, of Lumumba Lane, off Joe Farrington Road, said she refuses to pay more for "lousy service".
Adderley, who looks after her retired parents, said as a result of power outages she lost a water heater last year and more recently a 32-inch flat screen television.
She said her family has been able to meet the monthly BEC payments in recent months, but still has an outstanding balance.
"BEC provides lousy service where they keep cutting off your lights," Adderley said.
"BEC blew our water heater last year and we still have not heard anything from them.
"Not only that, there are no jobs out there, so how do you expect us to pay a [higher bill] when we can hardly pay the bill now?"
Meanwhile, Georgina Woods, a Fox Hill resident, said she cannot afford her current bill and fears her power will eventually be disconnected with price hikes.
"The bill I get every month, I cannot afford to pay it," she said. "I have to pay a portion of it and leave something all the time. This comes as a shock.
"And the service is not good. Every night you have to sweat for two to three hours and go sit on the porch until the [power] comes on. No. BEC has to do better."
Tanya Cash, a mother of five, claimed her Android Smart Box, valued at $300, and a stereo system were short-fused weeks ago.
She said Prime Minister Perry Christie must intervene.
Cash said she is outraged the corporation is passing on more expenses to the Bahamian people with value-added tax (VAT) looming.
The government will implement VAT in January 2015 at a rate of 7.5 percent.
"BEC has been [having] blackouts for years, and we have just been silent, but no more," Cash said.
She said over the last two years she has lost a flat screen television, desktop computer and several other small appliances.

'Mind boggling service'
As of yesterday, one large generator at Clifton Pier and a medium generator at Blue Hills were down, according to the corporation's public relations officer, Arnette Ingraham.
"At this point we are not load shedding and we are able to meet demand with the engines down, but the situation is very fluid," Ingraham said.
"We hope to maintain the status quo for as long as possible until we get that large generator back up, [which] should happen as late as early next week."
Ingraham said the price increase Miller announced is not expected to be prolonged.
However, she said prices are also dependent on the global price of fuel and whether the corporation can maintain its generators at Clifton Pier.
Dionisio D'Aguilar, Superwash's president, called the current situation as it relates to electrical generation "mind boggling".
"We have under invested in our power plants. We haven't fixed BEC to get sufficient cash to do the required maintenance and it's just a bloody mess," he said.
D'Aguilar said his office was without power yesterday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. He said the power outages have never been this bad.
The government is engaged in a request for proposal (RFP) process as part of its plan to engage private companies to gain management contracts to take over transmission, distribution and customer billing at BEC.
However, that process has been delayed several times, and the government has been criticized for a lack of transparency on the deal.

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