BAHAMAS: BPL Daily Fact Sheet

#Nassau, August 28, 2019 – Bahamas – Bahamas Power and Light Company Ltd. (BPL) continues its focused efforts to return two units at the Blue Hills Power Station to service. The two units total 44 megawatts, which more than makes up the generation deficit we face during peak energy consumption hours. Together with the rest of the nation, we are keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Dorian, since the weather could play a major role in the repair timetable for these outdoor units.

As we reported yesterday, we are presently waiting for an additional specialist to arrive on site and start assessments. Due to flight delays that specialist will not arrive tonight as originally planned. As such, we don’t have an updated an assessment to share tonight but will share what we know tomorrow after the specialist have had adequate time onsite at BHPS.

Work on the units had entered the testing stages after around-the-clock effort from the local and international team in preparation for commissioning the units and returning them to service. New, unforeseen problems have arisen with each unit over the past 24 hours, however, and as we noted in yesterday’s update, we have been forced to reassess our timelines. That is ongoing and will be updated in conjunction with the new team on the ground later today.

Once again, with the delay of the specialist, we don’t yet have any updates on the current repair timeline. We will share an update once the specialists have completed their assessments tomorrow and we have an update on the repair schedule.

DAILY UPDATES:

Today’s Load Shortage

20 megawatts

Tomorrow’s Estimated Load Shortage

30 megawatts

Today’s Projected Average Power Outage

3 Hours

Tomorrow’s Estimated Average Power Outage

3 Hours

Average Power Outage (Last 24hrs): 2 Hours, 29 Minutes

Our current availability is 215 megawatts against an expected day peak of 230 megawatts and an expected evening peak of 235 megawatts.

CURRENT SITUATION & REMEDIATION STEPS: We continue to work on two units at the Blue Hills Power Station (BHPS), representing the 44 megawatts of unavailable power.

Work on the 21-megawatt 1st UNIT at BHPS continued throughout the day. The additional specialist is expected in onsite early Thursday morning. In the meantime, the team had to replace the head for the diesel engine, and that task was expected to be completed over the course of the day. Once this is done, the unit can be tested and we can assess the timeline for return to service. We have suffered significant setbacks in the attempt to bring this unit back online, including identification of an additional mechanical problem during recent repairs. To properly repair the issue, we identified the additional specialist, who was due in town Wednesday evening, but was unsuccessful in getting here today. We believe this delay and the potential of interruption due to the impending storm will push back our original timeline for getting this unit back online. Again, once the specialist is on site we will be better able to determine the impact to the timeline.

BHPS 1st UNIT: original estimated 7 to 10 days for system repair. The timeline is now being reassessed.

UPDATES: Specialist expected in Thursday morning to start assessment on Unit. ARS: Original completion date was August 30th, which is being reassessed once the specialist arrives and is on site.

The 2 ndUNIT (23-megawatts) at BHPS has developed a vibration problem, which the team worked all day to attempt to address. Today the team attempted a mechanical balance of the unit, a lengthy and complex process that was still going up to press time. As this work continued, a specialist working with the team on this unit consulted specialists abroad to try to bring even more expertise to bear on the assessment and repair of this unit. The results of that consultation are not yet clear, and we will update the public and our timeline once we have accurate information.

BHPS 2nd UNIT: originally anticipated up to 21 days for system repair from last week UPDATES: Work progressed as team attempted – under the specialist’s lead – to address the new problem.

ARS: September 6th. Will be reassessed tomorrow with the arrival of the specialist.

Release: BPL