BEC explains outages; apologizes to customers in Eleuthera and Harbour Island

The Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) wishes to apologize to its customers in Eleuthera, particularly those in North Eleuthera and Harbour Island, for the series of outages that they would have experienced over the last 24hrs.

On Thursday March 27th, 2014 at approximately 10:24am a North Feeder tripped offline due to faulty switchgear at the Hatchet Bay Power Plant.  The switchgear was eventually changed however attempts to energize the feeder failed due to a second fault. While the switchgear was being changed, supplies were restored to most customers on Harbour Island utilizing the Harbour Island Power Stations.

Crews were immediately dispatched to investigate however the source of the problem was not immediately ascertained. Another problem was later discovered and crews worked diligently throughout the night to resolve this issue. Electricity was eventually restored to customers as far as the Three Island Substation by 2:53am.

The crews commenced additional repairs by 8:42am however problems were exacerbated by a faulty transformer on the main overhead line feeding North Eleuthera.  Electricity was eventually restored by 9:56am to the remaining residents on Harbour Island and the section of North Eleuthera that would have been impacted.

Residents in Eleuthera would also be aware of an outage that occurred sometime around 2:30pm this afternoon (28 Mar 2014). BEC officials advise that the outage occurred when branches that were being cut by a customer fell onto the transmission line in Governors Harbour. This caused another outage which resulted in a large number of customers being impacted for nearly half an hour.

The Bahamas Electricity Corporation would like to ensure its customers in Eleuthera that once these incidents occurred the teams were immediately dispatched and worked diligently to resolve the issues. The Bahamas Electricity Corporation again apologizes to its customers for any inconvenience caused during these outages and wishes to thank its customers in Eleuthera for their patience during this time.