BAHAMAS: Prime Minister Tours New Clifton Pier Power Plant

#Nassau, 23 December, 2019 – Bahamas –Today at Clifton Pier, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, Cabinet ministers, Members of Parliament and other Government representatives joined the Board of Directors of Bahamas Power and Light Company Ltd. (BPL) along with BPL executives and customers to celebrate Station A being online. The new power plant came online this Sunday, meeting the December 15 deadline set by BPL and Wӓrtsil

Chairman of the BPL Board of Directors, Dr. Donovan Moxey, said, “It was only in March that BPL and Wӓrtsilӓ signed an agreement to rebuild Station A after last year’s fire. Now, this new power plant is a reality and is providing power to the Bahamian people. The launch of Station A is a critical component of our turnaround strategy – provide cleaner, more reliable power to help put an end to summers of load shedding and grow our economy.”

“Everything we are doing at BPL is about righting the ship and fixing the historical problems that have plagued this utility,” Moxey continued. “The problems can’t be solved overnight but today is a clear indicator that we are making very real progress that is going to positively impact the lives of our customers. I’m very proud of the team here at BPL for their hard work and I’m honored to have the Prime Minister and members of the Government joining us today.”

The seven new Wӓrtsilӓ engines housed in Station A will provide just over 130 megawatts of power to the grid in New Providence. Thanks to their versatility, they can burn less expensive fuel, meaning that BPL customers will see reduced costs once fuel savings expand.

“These engines are state-of-the-art,” said BPL CEO Whitney Heastie. “These engines dramatically increase our generation capacity and will allow us to take other engines off the grid for critical maintenance without impacting our energy supply. Importantly, we will now have excess capacity in our system so, come summer, when peak demand is around 260 megawatts, we will have over 300 megawatts of available power.”

“The Bahamian people can be proud of what we are unveiling here today,” Heastie added. “This new power plant is a big step forward in building a first-class power utility that will make our nation proud.”

About BPL

BPL currently operates 29 generating stations on 17 islands. BPL serves approximately 90% of all electricity consumers in the nation. We operate, and generate electricity from, 30 power stations (29 diesel engine stations and one gas turbine power station) in 25 locations with a total installed capacity of approximately 438MW. We service approximately 110,000 customers.

Release: BPL

Photo Caption:

Header: BPL CEO Whitney Heastie answers questions from the press after e Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis toured Station A at Clifton Pier Power Station today and started an engine from the control room.

Insert: Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis toured Station A at Clifton Pier Power Station today and started an engine from the control room. Station A came online on Sunday, December 15, meeting the deadline set by BPL and Wӓrtsilӓ.