THE BPL CRISIS IS NOT YET SOLVED: INSURANCE WILL NOT PAY

Last week, the Bahamas Power and Light Company got a bit of a break but it had nothing to do with their own expertise. Thank God for the weather.  It was rainy and overcast, so people shut off their air conditioning and so the load factor was lighter loads for two days or so, no load shedding. Don’t hold your breath though.  The issue is still there.  The island of New Providence has been suffering from three hour power cuts now for a month or more with no end in sight.  The government suddenly decided after the company said they had no money to get the additional generators, that they will find the money. But stand by there is new news.  The company claimed that they will get an insurance settlement for the generators that burned out in  a fire early in the year. The staff are saying that’s not true.   They say the insurers have indicated that the generators burned out because of the negligence of BPL. The talk is that the fire happened because the engines were not supposed to be rushed back into service after being down.  The old engines require bunker c and it takes up to 15 hours to get them back on line.  However, Whitney Heastie, the  head man at the Corporation reportedly called the staff and told them get the engines up and running right away. The staff reportedly told him that it takes a while and two shifts for the engines to get up and running, otherwise there would be problems.  Mr. Heastie reportedly said to them: “ Do you know who I am” .  He ordered them to turn the engines on immediately. The result. The fires. Well we will soon see.