Prime Minister Philip Davis' claim in the House of Assembly on Wednesday as it relates to Bahamas Power and Light's (BPL) seven Wartsila engines directly contrasted the state of those engines as noted by BPL CEO Shevonn Cambridge just a day earlier when he appeared on a Guardian Radio talkshow. 

Davis told the House of Assembly: "They (the engines) are not working. They've never worked properly."

The prime minister also said the engines flat out never worked - a statement that appears illogical given BPL's continued reporting that the engines are allowing BPL to meet the summer demand for power supply.

"You will find that those engines were constructed in a dilapidated building. Therefore, they can't run for fear that the building will collapse on it. That's the findings. Never ran the engines. Never ran the seven engines put there," the prime minister claimed.

But the day before, "Morning Blend" host Dwight Strachan asked Cambridge, "Are any of these engines still in use? What exactly is going on?"

Cambridge explained, "Aside from the two that are still undergoing their maintenance in the maintenance cycle that should be wrapped up the end of this month, they are all able to be utilized. We're able to run like five of them at any given point in time."

Strachan asked, "You are able to or you are?"

Cambridge responded, "We are running five at any given point in time, and so, five are running right now in line with our dispatch schedule and our maintenance schedule.

"The contract, we still have a relationship with Wartsila. Wartsila is the relationship manufacturer. They're the supplier of all of our spares and what have you.

"What was terminated was the operational and maintenance contract with Wartsila, but that was just taken over by BPL's in-house management and that was taken over for some operational efficiency measures as well as for some economic reasons. So it just made more economic sense in terms of there was duplication of specific staffing resources and it made no sense given our current financial challenges to be trying to operate two separate entities when we were better able to utilize the staff that we have across both plants, especially considering the proximity. They're all in the same yard.

"There are seven but we run five at any given point."

Strachan asked again, "Still in use?"

Cambridge responded, "Yes."

On July 2 after Leader of the Opposition Michael Pintard claimed two of the engines were offline for the summer, Cambridge said that is absolutely not true.

He told The Nassau Guardian, "Every year, you have to take them off and you do a maintenance on them for roughly about two weeks to 30 days. The two units that are currently off are undergoing their annual maintenance. They're not lost for the summer."

Asked what kind of impact ending Wartsila's contract at the end of last year had on BPL's operations, Cambridge said on July 2, "The only impact it has had is we've been able to save a lot of money by ending the arrangement with Wartsila.

"We were paying a premium for the OEM reps being here, but they were utilizing Bahamian staff; and so, we had people here with the skill set to carry it out, and so we took it over."

Davis said on Wednesday, "... Those engines were supposed to burn a particular type of oil.

"You will find that the engines were not able or capable of doing so, and as a result, it has caused an acceleration of maintenance to the extent where over $3 million has been lost in the maintenance of those engines.

"You will find that Wartsila, they're not here, but they were being paid millions of dollars for what, when Bahamians were doing it?"

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Cambridge said, "I think what the PM was getting at was recently I had the opportunity to brief him, and basically, it was that the engines were designed to operate a certain way. But certain amendments and modifications were made during the project execution that resulted in them not performing as the project had originally envisioned.

"And that has resulted in some eating or eroding of some of the fuel savings benefits that were envisioned with the project, as well as some of the operational performance issues."

The prime minister said he will put the information in the public domain to prove the Minnis administration was an "abject failure" on BPL.

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The post PM's tone on Wartsila engines contradicted BPL CEO's a day before appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

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