NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Michael Pintard has criticized Prime Minister Davis’ claims regarding the Wärtsilä engines purchased by Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) and accused him of lacking a comprehensive vision and plan of action for BPL.
Last week Prime Minister Philip Davis told Parliament that the current state of affairs at Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) is a direct result of the decisions taken by the Minnis administration, suggesting that there was something foul regarding the company’s purchase of seven Wärtsilä engines back in 2019.
“The PM’s comments on BPL were shamefully wrong and conflicted with the CEO of BPL account and as the PM seeks to run from the fact that the increase of cost of electricity is directly related to his and Minister Sear’s bad decision making which they sought to hide then and seek to hide now,” Pintard said in a statement yesterday.
“The Prime Minister’s assertion that the Station A Wärtsilä plant never worked fully is not correct. The log files would show that all 7 engines were running simultaneously when load demands required.”
Pintard challenged Prime Minister Davis to provide all of the log files for Station A.
“The Wärtsilä engines are tri-fuel and are designed to run Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO), Light fuel Oil (LFO), and LNG. When commissioned the engines were able to ruin HFO and LFO from day one, and when LNG became available the required gas fuel kits would have been installed to allow for LNG as a fuel source. There was no need to install the gas fuel kits prior to LNG becoming available. The Station A engines were running LFO and HFO on a regular basis from they were commissioned,” Pintard stated.
“With respect to the HFO and LFO fuel that is used to run the Station A engines, as per the terms of the agreement, it was BPL’s responsibility to provide all fuel to Station A. Further, it was BPL’s responsibility to ensure that the fuel that was provided to Station A met the quality and purity standards as required by Wärtsilä.
“If and when there were problems with the purity of the fuel and the engines experienced issues, this would have been the direct responsibility of BPL,” Pintard continued.
The Opposition Leader noted that Wärtsilä, as the manufacturer of the engines, was contracted to maintain and operate the engines at Station A to ensure that all manufacturer operations and maintenance standards were maintained, with the company assuming full responsibility for any issues that may have occurred with the seven engines while under their direct control with respect to operations and maintenance.
“The Bahamians that worked for Wärtsilä were in fact Wärtsilä employees, with all of the rights and privileges provided by the company. During the negotiations with Wärtsilä BPL insisted that the company hire and train Bahamians to operate and maintain the engines because the FNM government did not want to see these jobs go to foreigners.
“Of the 36 Wärtsilä employees that worked in statin A, only two were foreign workers. This was by design and intent. The Davis Administration canceled the Wärtsilä contract in December 2022, and hired the Bahamians that are now former Wärtsilä employees as independent contractors, these persons are not BPL full-time employees,” Pintard indicated.
He asserted that by canceling the contract with Wärtsilä and replacing them with BWSC, a company that is not a certified Wärtsilä third-party service provider, the Davis administration put the integrity of those engines into question both in the short and the long-term.
“With respect to cost, if the Davis Administration would take a careful look at the cost of generation per kWh for 132MW Station A under Wärtsilä, and the cost of generation per kWh for the generation that is run by BPL employees, there will be a stark difference in these costs, with the Wärtsilä “all in” costs being lower,” said Pintard.
“As an example, Wärtsilä required only 36 employees to operate and maintain a 132MW plant, compare that to the almost 100 BPL employees that are required to run the roughly 70MW of engines at Clifton pier.”
He continued: “Fuel charges to consumers skyrocketed by 163 percent in large measure due to Davis-Sears cancellation of the Hedge program. This cancellation and the cover-up of their decision has resulted in the increase of electricity costs to residents and Business Persons.
“BPL‘s position overall has been made worse by its failure to execute the Rate Reduction Bond(RRB) while interest rates were favorable and would have made it workable. They like us, while in government, missed the opportunity to benefit from the RRB.”
According to the Opposition Leader, Prime Minister Davis has failed to provide a comprehensive vision and plan of action for BPL to put our country on a pathway to cleaner cheaper energy.
“Rather than settle down and do his job to tackle the enormous energy challenges we now face that can erode financial gains being made, he speaks in an uninformed manner, misleads the public and levels accusations without providing facts,” Pintard chided.
“Our people are facing higher temperatures, higher electricity costs with much lower chances of help from Davis and Sears.”
