Hundreds of Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) customers were left in the dark Tuesday evening as the state-run corporation worked through inclement weather to restore power.
In a press statement released yesterday, officials said lightning; heavy rains and high winds were responsible for damaging some power lines and transformers on BEC’s distribution network, leaving several communities without electricity.
“Emergency crews were dispatched as soon as weather conditions improved and teams worked into the early hours of Wednesday morning to complete the restoration process. At present, BEC teams are currently working to restore supply to several individual customers who were impacted by the storm,” officials said.
BEC warned that as the summer season approaches and severe storms become more frequent, there is a possibility that electricity supplies may be interrupted.
Just last year, the Ingraham administration rented two megawatt generating equipment to meet the high demands of summer as there were frequent blackouts during those months.
Earlier this month, BEC inked a $24 million contract for a gas turbine to be installed at the Blue Hills Power Station.
The contract was signed with Japanese conglomerate, Hitachi, which has supplied units to BEC over the last 10 years.
Officials said the 24 megawatts (MW) gas turbine will complement a 12 MW steam and gas unit and allow for the retirement of a GT 1 and provide 18 MW of incremental capacity to satisfy anticipated demand for electricity once Baha Mar comes on stream in 2014.
The turbine will be installed next year, officials said.
Meantime, the corporation said it remains committed to ensuring that power supplies are restored in the shortest possible time.
BEC said customers with electricity supply related problems are encouraged to contact BEC’s 24-hour emergency hotline at 323-5561-4 or 302-1800.
“BEC apologises to its customers affected by Tuesday’s outages and maintains its commitment to ensuring a safe and reliable supply of electricity to its consumers,” a release said.
