NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The efforts to restore electricity to North Andros have cost $600,000 to-date, according to Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears.
Sears, who gave an update in Parliament yesterday on the work done since a fire on July 5 destroyed BPL’s Nicholl’s Town power station, noted this figure includes generation purchases, auxiliary parts and shipment costs.
“The final amount will be determined in due course,” Sears indicated.
Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) said in a statement on Tuesday that it has made significant progress in restoring power supply to customers in North Andros. A week ago, a catastrophic fire destroyed its Nicholls Town power plant leaving some 1,300 customers without electricity. In a statement the company said that it has substantially restored supply to customers in North Andros as of Tuesday afternoon.
“BPL made significant headway in the hours following last Wednesday’s catastrophic fire at the North Andros Power Station; however, certain setbacks resulted in periods of supply disruption for North Andros customers between Thursday July 6, 2023, and Tuesday, July 11, 2023,” the company stated.
“On Tuesday afternoon, BPL’s team was able to make additional generation available providing power to most areas of North Andros. To ensure system stability, BPL’s present capacity allows for supply to approximately 90 percent of North Andros customers.”
While BPL did admit that load sharing will take place until the system is stabilized, BPL claimed that only 10 percent of customers will experience periods of supply interruption, in four-hour intervals.
“BPL apologizes to its North Andros customers and asks for their patience as the fire was an extraordinary event. BPL acknowledges that it faced several challenges in creating a new generation infrastructure for North Andros but remains committed to normalizing operations as soon as possible. BPL is also committed to a long-term strategy for the island that embraces leaner greener technologies,” the company concluded.
Sears told Parliament that once all of the generation units are fully integrated, BPL’s installed capacity will be 3.8MW, well above the peak demand of 2MW.
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