NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) has issued an apology to residents of Cat Island and the organisers of the annual Cat Island Rake & Scrape Festival after an island-wide blackout during the Labour Day weekend which was caused by a fire involving a generation unit, disrupted the festival and left vendors counting losses.
The outage occurred during the final night of the Cat Island Rake and Scrape Festival, an event that annually attracts visitors from throughout The Bahamas and provides a significant boost for local businesses, vendors and entrepreneurs.
BPL said the disruption stemmed from a fire involving the Cat Island 1 (CI 1) power generation unit at approximately 8:30 p.m., after its turbocharger failed, leaked oil onto the exhaust manifold, and ignited, resulting in an islandwide outage.
The electricity provider, in a comprehensive report on the June 6 outage, said: “Bahamas Power and Light Company Limited (BPL) extends its sincere apologies to the residents of Cat Island and the organizers of the Rake & Scrape Festival for the islandwide power outage that occurred on June 6, 2026. We recognize the significant inconvenience caused to our valued customers and the impact the outage had on the closing night of the festival.”
It added: “We understand the disappointment experienced by residents, visitors, performers, vendors, and organizers who were affected by the cancellation of the festival’s closing events.”
BPL said the statement was intended to provide clarity on the cause of the outage, the restoration timeline, immediate steps being taken to strengthen generation capacity on the island, and to address misinformation concerning the incident.
The islandwide outage, which led to the cancellation of the closing night of the Rake & Scrape Festival, was caused by a fire involving the Cat Island 1 (CI 1) power generation unit at approximately 8:30 p.m. A thorough investigation conducted by BPL’s technical team determined that the turbocharger on CI Unit 1 failed and began leaking oil onto the exhaust manifold, which subsequently ignited and caused a fire.
Upon observing the fire, the Station Operator immediately shut down CI Unit 1 and tripped all feeders as a safety precaution, resulting in an islandwide outage. BPL said its linesmen responded immediately and commenced restoration efforts within one hour of the incident. By 10:33 p.m., CI Units 3 and 4 were brought back online, restoring power to North Cat Island as far as Thurston Hill.
As restoration efforts progressed, technicians encountered operational issues with CI Unit 3, which subsequently tripped offline. Attempts to restart the unit were unsuccessful, leaving only CI Unit 4 available for operation. By 12:47 a.m. on Sunday, June 7, 2026, power supply had been restored to customers as far as Arthur’s Town Airport.
At 2:20 a.m., technicians implemented a rotational power supply schedule due to a shortfall in generation capacity, allowing electricity to be provided to as many customers as possible while restoration efforts continued. Both the North and South feeders remained on a scheduled rotation between 2:21 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Additional personnel and replacement equipment were flown into Cat Island at 12:00 p.m. to support restoration efforts.
At 1:37 p.m., the North Feeder was restored as far as Arthur’s Town. The South Feeder was restored as far as New Bight Airport at 4:10 p.m. The South Feeder was subsequently restored as far as Douds at 4:55 p.m., while the North Feeder was fully restored at 5:00 p.m.
Full power supply was successfully restored to all customers at 6:14 p.m., approximately 21 hours and 46 minutes after the initial outage.
BPL thanked customers for their patience, stating: “We thank our valued customers for their patience and understanding as our teams worked diligently to restore service as quickly and safely as possible. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused by this incident.”
The company also commended its staff, saying their swift response helped mitigate potentially widespread damage and enabled restoration within 24 hours.
Looking ahead, BPL said it remains committed to strengthening infrastructure and reliability on Cat Island, particularly during peak demand periods such as festival season.
It also addressed misinformation surrounding an alleged fuel shortage at its power station in The Cove, stating that 64,248 gallons of fuel were confirmed on site and that fuel availability did not contribute to the outage or delay restoration efforts.
BPL added that it remains focused on long-term system improvements through infrastructure upgrades, enhanced generation capacity, and renewable energy integration, while reaffirming its target of 30 per cent renewable energy by 2030, potentially achieved as early as 2027 through solar and microgrid deployment across the Family Islands.
