NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A former Cabinet Minister said yesterday that there was no justification for Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) consumers to be subjected to the “misery” of outages this summer, asserting that the former Minnis administration had taken the necessary steps to reform the utility.
Desmond Bannister, who served as Minister of Works in the Minnis administration, said that it was “disappointing” that the Davis administration had failed to build on what had been left in place by the Minnis administration.
His comments echoed those of Free National Movement Leader (FNM) leader Michael Pintard who has accused the Davis administration of not building on the progress the Minnis administration made towards addressing the power generation challenges at BPL. Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears warned there could be more load shedding this summer.
“The misery that Bahamians are going through should never have happened again. We should never have widespread power outages. I’m not saying load shedding because the Minister said one thing and the CEO said another. We brought in seven engines from Wärtsilä and they have the most efficient engines in the world,” said Bannister.
“It’s a huge disappointment to see them so lax with this energy situation. We got new and efficient engines and they were proven to work because we went through a pandemic when everyone was at home and had no problems,” he said.
According to Bannister, the Minnis administration had taken steps to ensure that BPL’s generation capacity on New Providence was in excess of the island’s peak demand. “Instead of a surplus, they now have limited power generation,” said Bannister.
“If anything goes wrong you have a problem and Bahamians deserve much better.”
Bannister also criticized the Davis administration for abandoning BPL’s Rate Reduction Bond (RRB).
“The idea of a rate reduction bond came under administration and they even brought legislation to Parliament. We put in some amendments which would not have changed the rates any more than they would have. The rate reduction bond would have provided the kind of money BPL needs to get all the necessary equipment to be an outstanding utility,” said Bannister.
The bond offering was a part of the utility provider’s efforts to obtain the financing needed to refinance the company’s legacy debt and also fund major upgrades to its transmission and distribution network.