PM “Not Concerned” About Bahamas Grid And BPL Collab

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NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS – Prime Minister Philip Davis responding to concerns over a possible rift between power entities Bahamas Grid Company and Bahamas Power and Light.

Those tensions became public on the weekend after an island-wide blackout and a since deleted BGC Facebook post that accused BPL of denying it access to the New Providence Control Center.

BPL has since said the two companies have met and are charting the way forward.

At the sidelines of the University of the Bahamas’s law week opening ceremony last night, the PM was asked about the back and forth.

Joshua Williams tells us what he had to say in this report.

“Was there any concerns? No No Concerns”

That was Prime Minister Philip Davis’ brief yet clear response to a rumored power struggle between Bahamas Power and Light and Bahamas Grid Company.

It came days after an island-wide blackout following a dramatic dip in temperatures and gusty winds Saturday night into early Sunday morning.

Bahamas Grid making a Facebook post on Sunday appearing to distance itself from the blackout.

It said..

“Unfortunately, for reasons unknown to BGC, the BGC team had been denied access to New Providence Control Center by BPL management since last week (January 27), despite it being BGC’s contractual right to jointly manage in the control center. As a result, only BPL was in the control center [Saturday] night to be able to try to assess and mitigate the outage effects in New Providence.”

That post has since been deleted but by Monday, BPL released a statement of their own, saying, they met with BGC, calling it a productive meeting to clarify matters and saying they remain committed to working together.

BPL and BGC’s partnership goes back to 2024, when government announced plans to enter into a 25-year agreement with the U.S. entity pike through its Bahamian Company Island Grid Solutions to oversee the upgrade and management of the T&D network.

That same year, Energy Minister, Jobeth-Coleby Davis said BPL would contribute the book value of its New Providence T&D assets, valued at $100 million, in exchange for 40 percent of the shares in the special purpose vehicle (Bahamas Grid Company), and island grid as the T&D manager will raise and contribute through private investors $130 million to the SPV in exchange for 60 percent of shares.

Both companies have worked together before. You may recall that microburst in Eastern New Providence last year, where teams from both companies responded to help restore power.

We asked the PM if he believes there needs to be any changes to the current deal.

“There’s no question of reconstruction. They are employed as managers to do some work and I’ll just see what they do after that “