Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) in a formal communication to customers on Monday, July 15th, confirmed that the company was continuing to experience a number of power supply issues in The Eleutheras, saying, “On mainland Eleuthera, BPL has suspended service to customers between Rainbow Bay and Savannah sound after reports of low voltage earlier on Monday, July 15th, 2024, to prevent damage to customers’ property due to the low voltage. Currently, teams are patrolling the lines between Rainbow Bay and Savannah Sound to identify the fault and perform any necessary repairs.” They added, “While we do not have a timeline, we anticipate that services will be fully restored before evening.”
The company statement followed a day of load shedding by BPL on Sunday, July 14th, with customers throughout the islands experiencing power outages of several hours at a time, which according to a BPL spokesperson, resulted from the temporary loss of a (generation) unit at the Hatchet Bay Plant earlier on Sunday.
Meanwhile, in Harbour Island, BPL explained, “At the same time, our generation team is assessing the cause of two-unit failures on Harbour Island. The loss of these two units means there is insufficient capacity to meet the island’s full demand and some load shedding (two-hour intervals) will be necessary until the units return to service.”
Expressing their apologies, and their goal for a return to regular service, BPL’s statement continued, “We understand the inconvenience to our customers on both mainland Eleuthera and Harbour Island and assure you that our teams are working to restore services to both communities before the end of the day.”
Sharing some of the plans in the works for the near future, to alleviate the frequency of power outages in The Eleutheras, BPL informed, “Additionally, we continue to forge ahead with our ongoing plans to improve service in Eleuthera over the coming months. Our plans include; the commissioning of temporary generation at Hatchet Bay to bolster supply and facilitate major unit overhauls, the completion of a major transmission line to stabilize supply in North Eleuthera, and the installation of new generation at the Harbour Island Power Station.”
