BPL workers union Chief : New equipment needed immediately

Bahamas, May 30th 2017: Bahamas Power and Light workers are warning if new equipment isn’t brought in soon, the country’s electricity supply could reach a critical state. The warning comes from President of the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union, Paul Maynard, who says if this isn’t done, expect a summer plagued with power outages.

The plea comes after a number of outages in New Providence over the weekend, and a warning issued last week, that the “engines are shot”. Maynard says  even with power from rental engines, it is not sufficient to prevent the outages. He says the new equipment is needed or else there will continue to be blackouts throughout the summer. Maynard attributes the increase in outages to the engines tripping with the increase in demand during the hot months, as he says everyone has their air conditioning on, describing the ancient engines being overload.

BPL Union President, Paul Maynard

He adds that while the workers would do what they can to lessen the outages, they can only do so much, and warns residents to expect power to still go off, although not for a long period of time.

BPL says while it expected the needed power generation this summer to peak at 255 megawatts, its current generation availability is over 345mw, a 90mw higher than the demand expected this summer.

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