NASSAU, BAHAMAS —Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) saw a roughly eight percent increase in its peak summer load on New Providence, according to a senior company executive, describing it as “crazy growth.”
“Our load went up eight percent this summer over last year. The peak on Abaco this summer was around 21 megawatts. Growth in the peak in New Providence was 20 MW. So we went from 260MW to 280MW in New Providence in the space of one year,” remarked Ian Pratt, the company’s chief operating officer (COO) while addressing the Abaco Business Outlook conference yesterday.
“That is crazy growth. Usually, we see one and a half to two percent or so growth.”
Pratt noted that prior to Hurricane Dorian in 2019, Abaco was BPL’s second-largest operation outside of new Providence, a designation it has since regained. According to Pratt, the island has 7,497 customers.
“There’s still ways to go because prior to Dorian, there were 9,100 customers or thereabouts,” said Pratt, before revealing that BPL has been averaging an additional 107 customers per month over the last six months.
He further noted that a number of commercial customers have still not returned to the island.
BPL operates 29 power stations across 17 islands, with roughly 113,000 customers.