BPL’s consumers say it’s time to take action

BPL’s consumers say it’s time to take action

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – As a series of power cuts repeatedly plagued consumers of Bahamas Power and Light since the beginning of this week, irate customers expressed on Wednesday that they are fed-up and some action should be taken to prove this.

“We should stop paying the bill for an entire month. We should just not pay,” one BPL consumer suggested, adding that earlier this week she received a bill from BPL for more than $900 but the power provider still could not keep the lights on.

BPL posted on its Facebook page on Tuesday, that round 9.40p.m., an engine at its Blue Hills Power Station tripped along with some Aggreko rental generators, which ultimately lead to outages in the area of  Pinewood, Malcolm Road and Garden Hills.

Outages were also reported Tuesday on the island of Abaco.

But one BPL customer said yesterday that now is the time for action.

“It’s getting hotter and hotter. I see Mr. Rollins on TV all the time, but where is the action? “It is frustrating when the chairman comes on and says there no-load shedding and complaining seems not have gotten us anywhere, but making them accountable is what we want.”

Another BPL  consumer said now is the time for the government to examine other options to provide power.

“Let’s look for other methods such as solar energy or natural gases that can actually fix our problem,” the consumer said.

BPL has been challenged to reduce outages.

In an effort to resolve the long-standing problem, the power provider contracted Finnish Technology group Wartsila to install a new $95 million, 132-megawatt engine power plant.

Those generation is expected to arrive on island this month and be fully installed by September.

Last month, despite an earlier promise made by Chairman of Bahamas Power and Light, Dr. Donovan Moxey, that there would be no load shedding this summer, Hugh Rollins, the Executive Director of BPL told media that customers can expect more power outages leading into the summer months.

“We are doing our best to minimize our load shedding and this will be our last summer of any kind of these issues,” said Rollins, who was a guest speaker at The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation ‘Power Breakfast’.

At the time, Rollins told the media that BPL will continue their load shedding exercises while the Corporation readies itself to install a new power plant engine and rent generators to compensate for aging equipment.