Bahamas Power and Light Company (BPL) executives recently engaged with members of the business community in Eleuthera, to talk about their comprehensive strategy aimed at improving power supply reliability and customer satisfaction on the island, called the Eleuthera Grid Revitalization Project.
The work now underway, says the company, targets revitalization of the island’s aging electricity infrastructure, which has faced numerous challenges over the years. The project, which commenced on February 3rd, 2025, and is set to unfold over 90 days, is said to be designed to enhance power generation, transmission, distribution, and customer service, allowing residents to receive more reliable electricity services – through scheduled outages for maintenance and upgrades across those sectors.
The BPL team, led by Chief Operating Officer Anthony Christie and Regional Manager Pedro Marcello, accompanied by Consultant Francis Frank and Corp. Communications Snr. Manager Arnette Ingraham, emphasized the importance of community engagement. They began discussions with local business leaders to gather insights and foster support for the revitalization efforts at a community meeting hosted at the Eleuthera Chamber of Commerce’s Business Hub in Rock Sound on Wednesday, January 29th, 2025.
The team said they recognized that effective communication would be crucial, especially as a marked increase in planned outages were expected during the 90-day overhaul. The project, they informed, could involve almost daily outages lasting up to five hours, primarily scheduled after school hours to minimize disruption to education and businesses. However, some outages were expected to take place during regular hours, and those outages, they said, they would try to limit as much as possible.
To keep residents informed, the company launched a dedicated webpage at www.bplco.com and said they are utilizing social media platforms including Whatsapp chatgroups, and local media, to disseminate information and real-time updates about outages and project progress, and would aim to give 48 hours notice for scheduled outages.
Eleuthera’s power generation now relies on three main plants in Rock Sound, Hatchet Bay, and Harbour Island. The current capacity is said to be under scrutiny, with plans to conduct necessary overhauls to ensure readiness for peak consumption during the upcoming summer months. The team said, one of the key overall aims of the grid revitalization project was to reduce unplanned outages significantly, targeting a 50% decrease within the project timeline. They also look to stabilize voltage levels and improve load balancing across the grid by upgrading aging infrastructure, which would enhance the overall reliability of the power supply.
The challenges, they said, were not insignificant. Vegetation management posed a major issue, as overgrown trees frequently interfered with power lines, leading to temporary interruptions. Additionally, many of the existing poles and transformers were decades old, necessitating upgrades, by replacing old poles and transformers, to meet current and future demands. The BPL team said they were committed to addressing these issues, so the infrastructure could support the community’s needs for years to come.
Other planned key upgrades and improvements to the electricity infrastructure included the addition of 2.5 megawatts of permanent generation for Harbour Island, 5 megawatts for the Rock Sound power station, and overhauling of generation units at the Hatchet Bay power station.
In reference to the work happening on the ground, Regional Manager Pedro Marcello, said the ongoing efforts at the three power stations were aimed at readiness for upcoming summer peak consumption periods, with a focus on overhauls and maintenance of aging equipment. Pointing out BPL’s recent investment in additional equipment on island in support of the project and future on-island service, he added, “BPL has already invested in about 5 bucket trucks, 2 drill trucks, a crane truck… and some others mid size vehicles. We are talking about investment probably around $2,000,000… Those vehicles are already in Eleuthera.”
Mr. Marcello continued, “We are bringing in three separate teams to specifically focus on the grid to ensure that the system could be reliable and dependable and supply the kind of service that the consumers deserve and expect during the scheduled outages.” He added, “Also during this time, we have the street lighting exercises that are ongoing. We have been replacing the street lights from the ‘orange light’ as the consumers would call them, which are the high pressure sodium lights to the LED lights. That exercise is taking place throughout Eleuthera. We’ve already completed perhaps more than 90% of the smaller communities. It’s free lighting. We’ve also asked local government representatives to identify areas where we did not get to change these lights or where they may require additional lighting.”
Also, highlighting the company’s focus on workforce development in line with evolving technology, BPL Consultant Frank, said that training and development of young employees in Eleuthera would also be ongoing, to ensure a skilled workforce for future operations, and address the challenge of an aging workforce. He added, “We will continue to train, we will continue to grow the staff and develop their skill set, not just for today’s technology, but the technology of the future as well.”
As the project progresses, the team said they anticipated that residents would notice a marked improvement in service quality. They expressed a determination to create a sustainable electricity system that would not only meet current demands but also accommodate future growth.
