Amidst concerns about its ability to generate supply for its thousands of customers, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) officials said the company is more than equipped to handle the 2017summer season usage of electricity by residents.
BPL officials explained in a statement that the company experienced its worst outages last June to September due to low generation ability and reliability that led to the system’s demand exceeding the company’s ability to supply.
However, BPL hopes that capital projects and maintenance activities over the past year would assist with ensuring its ability to handle the upcoming summer peak usage by residents from both the generation and distribution standpoint.
“BPL is pleased to confirm high confidence with its summer readiness program to deliver consistent and reliable electricity during the summer period,” the statement read.
“BPL also took into account the need for additional capacity to service the Baha Mar resort and other new loads as well as the previously recorded system demand in its projections. While the expected peak this summer is estimated at 255MW, BPL advises that its current generation availability is over 345MW, 90MW higher than the projected summer peak demand.”
In addition to these steps being taken BPL officials said transmission between the Blue Hills Power Station and the Big Pond Substation have also been upgraded to improve reliability
Bahamas Power and Light would like to remind the public that there’s still the possibility of third party interruptions such as adverse weather conditions and traffic accidents that could pose problems.
However, should such incidents impact power supply, BPL hopes power would be restored in a much shorter period of time.
“BPL will continue to make substantial improvements to the existing infrastructure while investing in new products and technologies that will enhance how we do business, as well provide our customers with energy solutions that are reliable, safe, innovative and affordable,” the statement added.
“This will all be done in an effort to continually build for better, until better becomes best.”
