National

Will There Be Load Shedding This Summer?

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Load shedding could be a reality for New Providence residents this summer, according to Minister responsible for BPL, Alfred Sears.

Published

3 years ago

June 29, 2023

Berthony McDermott

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The age-old issue of load shedding could be a reality for New Providence residents this summer, according to Minister responsible for Bahamas Power and Light, Alfred Sears.

The summer season for BPL seems to be getting off to a rough start as residents were faced with load shedding in recent days.

And while BPL says those issues have been addressed, the question at the forefront of everyone’s mind is will there be more load shedding this summer?

Sears says the power giant is doing all it can to prevent this from happening.

He adds the demand in New Providence has never exceeded 263 megawatts but he says it could go as high 270 megawatts this summer.

While it appears BPL has sufficient generation to meet the demand, Sears says the engines can sometimes have problems.

In the event this happens, he says several mitigation measures are in place.

BPL also has access to a generation assistance program.

As demand is expected to increase in the coming months, Sears says BPL is looking at solutions that include rental generation and to return BPL’s 20-megawatt unit next month, giving New Providence 53 mega wats of additional generation capacity.