Residents Frustrated Amid Repeated Power Outages in Western NP

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We spoke with residents in the West Bay area, where frustration is mounting over ongoing power outages.

Some consumers are calling for greater consistency from BPL, saying frequent interruptions, combined with high temperatures, are leading to food loss and financial stress.

For Michelle Thompson-Ramrattan, the recent outages resulted in significant food spoilage after her power was left off for an extended period.

Michelle Thompson-Ramrattan – Resident

“Well, day before yesterday the lights went out from about 9:30. It was off upwards to 2 o’clock. When I checked home yesterday afternoon it was still off, and when I got in from work it came on shortly after 6. It stayed on for about an hour and it was off again. It never came on until about 9:30, 10 o’clock last night. As a result of that, I had lots of meats and everything that I had to dispose of because they’re no longer any good.”

An employee at Juicin for Life Cafe and Deli in Saunders Beach Plaza also expressed frustration over limited notification and the impact on business sales during ongoing outages.

Employee – Juicin for Life

“Sometimes we don’t get any notification until the next day, but if they give us a heads up, for people who don’t operate on generators and stuff like that, we could provide the information to our customers ahead of time to let them know we will be closed for five to six hours and they’ll know when to call and when to come in. So for us who suffer, BPL needs to work on it, and it kills business. We have staff we have to accommodate, we have overhead like BPL, we have water bills, we have other stuff we have to deal with.”

A local business owner shared similar concerns, saying power outages make it difficult to operate and often force businesses to consider costly generator solutions.

Western New Providence Resident and Business Owner

“So once the power is off, I can’t do anything. You can’t serve customers in that case, and the company would probably have to invest in a generator, which is pretty costly for something temporary when they can’t keep the power on.”

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Killarney, Michela Barnett-Ellis, says many residents in her constituency have raised similar concerns about frequent power outages.

She also outlined proposed measures discussed following a meeting with Bahamas Grid Company CEO Dareo McKenzie, aimed at reducing strain on the electrical grid in western New Providence.

Michela Barnett-Ellis – Member of Parliament, Killarney

“The plan is to reduce the load on the grid or to expand the grid so that each individual cable has reduced load on it, and that should alleviate the blackouts that we’re having. They’re also simultaneously repairing and replacing the parts, the faults that we are having, the parts of the grid that are failing. So it’s a two-pronged approach, but it is not a quick fix. We’re talking months to resolve this. It’s going to take some time.”