Arnette Ingraham

Nearly four months after Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) officials contended that the company may have to bring in more rented power to address summer demand and prevent rolling blackouts, the 40 megawatts of rented power generation have yet to be installed, amid swathes of New Providence experiencing escalating outages over the last few weeks.

BPL Corporate Communications Manager Arnette Ingraham told The Nassau Guardian BPL had  anticipated that rental generation would be installed on the grid "a long time ago".

"That did not happen for whatever reason," Ingraham said. "You know, the contract was signed late. There was a lot of back and forth between the government [and] BPL as to who was to blame. We are not talking about that. At this point, all of the units are on island."

According to Ingraham, those units are expected to come on stream next week.

"But what you are talking about is building a physical plant, so it is similar to setting up another power station on island," she said. So, it is not going to be an overnight process where you just plug in it and the generators start working.

"You have to do a lot of civil work. You have to build fuel tanks, pour concrete slabs for the generators to be grounded on. That has taken some time and because of that, in addition to the fact that the generators are literally coming from other companies and have to be shipped and transported to Blue Hills Power Station, that has taken some time."

Ingraham did not reveal the cost of the work or the rental generation.

In May, former president of the Bahamas Electrical Utility Managerial Union (BEUMU) Clinton Minnis pointed to BPL's generation shortfall and said the company might have to bring on more rented power. In June, BPL began load-shedding in two-hour rotations, the first of many such exercises. There were rolling blackouts on New Providence up to yesterday.

In July, Prime Minister Perry Christie admitted that the government and BPL did not prepare for the generation shortfall to see the company through the summer demand, despite anticipating that "we would have had a bad summer". Since then, outages throughout New Providence had plagued customers.

Two downed generators -- one at the Clifton Pier Power Station and another at the Blue Hills Power Station -- resulted in the most recent round of outages.

Those generators were restored around 3 p.m. yesterday, BPL claimed.

"... We are pushing at this point to have everybody working on overtime, on overdrive, to get those 40 megawatts up and that will provide us with a level of energy security that we have been lacking for a long period of time," Ingraham said.

With the additional rented power, Ingraham said BPL can conduct "proper maintenance" of other generators in an effort to better meet demand, instead of what she called "patchwork".

When contacted around 1 p.m., Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) President Paul Maynard said he understands the generation will be in place to supplement the demand on the grid by Sunday.

Powers that be, out Amid the mounting power interruptions, none of PowerSecure's executives are in The Bahamas, though it is unclear if their presence in the country is a condition of the management agreement.

During a press conference in February, BPL officials, including PowerSecure President of Utility Infrastructure Ronnie Brannen, dodged questions surrounding their plan to improve and upgrade the energy system, the costs, and the timeline associated with the reduction in the cost of power.

Brannen said PowerSecure would hold another press conference in the near future where more specifics will be provided.
But that never happened.

In response to questions about the whereabouts of PowerSecure's executives, Ingraham said, "BPL is managed by its executive team and that includes the CEO, Pamela Hill.

"The PowerSecure team is not stationed on island.

"There is an executive team in place, which is expected to manage the operation on island."

Neither Hill nor the executives of PowerSecure could be reached for comment.

Details on business plan
Some observers have said this summer has been the worst in years.

"It's been an awful time for customers and we empathize with our customers," Ingraham admitted.

Last April, former Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) Executive Chairman Leslie Miller said the corporation was in crisis mode and faced a worsening situation in the absence of urgent action on energy reform.
BPL is a wholly owned subsidiary of BEC.

The government signed a transitional agreement with PowerSecure in July 2015. It signed a management services agreement with the company in February to provide more reliable and affordable electricity. The contract is worth as much as $25 million.

As a part of the agreement, the company was paid nearly $1 million to create a business plan. The public remains in the dark about that plan, more than a year later. However, Ingraham said Hill will reveal key elements of the company's plan for BPL in the "coming weeks".

"She is going to be speaking with different partners and even the media on certain aspects of the plan to truly highlight our focus areas, which are reliability, affordability and customer service," Ingraham said. "So, I will expect she will be looking at each of those components in greater detail so that customers and the public has a better understanding of what the plan entails."

Ingraham added that the company is exploring building a new plant and phasing in new generators to replace the aged ones.

Royston Jones Jr., Guardian Staff Reporter

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