ELEUTHERA, BAHAMAS — Widespread reports of power disruptions in North Eleuthera have prompted a statement from Bahamas Power and Light Company Ltd. (BPL), which blamed the woes on a “major system failure on Sunday, May 12, 2024.
While the cause of the system failure will be investigated, BPL says its team has been working for the past 30+ hours to restore service to customers between the Hatchet Bay Power Station and Current in North Eleuthera.
“The system disturbance initially caused an island-wide outage; however, supply was eventually restored to customers in South Eleuthera who are fed from the Rock Sound Power Station and then to all customers south of BPL’s Hatchet Bay Power Station,” a statement read.
“Once the team attempted to re-energize its north feeder (out of the Hatchet Bay Power Station), they discovered major switch gear damage. The extent of the damage required expertise from New Providence and a senior engineer was flown into North Eleuthera on Sunday evening to assist the local team with completing repairs and restoring service.
“Sunday night and into Monday, BPL’s team worked non-stop to complete major repairs, including cabling and system reconfiguration. The complexity of this work has extended the outage time for customers in North Eleuthera, nonetheless, BPL’s leadership is confident that it has the best personnel on the ground to complete the work and eventually restore service to customers.”
At present, the Company is unable to give an estimated time for restoration; however, the team says it has made significant progress and is working on synchronization to regulate electricity coming out of the Hatchet Bay Power Station.
BPL remains confident that supply will be restored within the next few hours.
“BPL apologizes to its customers experiencing this prolonged outage and assures them that this is an extraordinary event outside the Company’s control. BPL asks for the continued patience of its customers in North Eleuthera while its local team works to restore service as quickly and safely as possible,” the statement ended.
