Dear BP,
I am old enough to remember the 1960’s, when every dark cloud, a bird nesting on the power lines, or a flash of lightning, was enough to cause a power outage that, in some cases, lasted for hours. Over the years, however, I have witnessed a steady increase in the quality and reliability of power throughout the Bahamas. So, on Sunday, when the power went off, I was not concerned. I knew that BPL would do all in its power to restore power. By midday, however, I became concerned that the power had been off for about three hours, and that was very unusual.
I have a generator, so I searched online for the cause of the problem, and this is what I found in the reporting. “ The recent island‑wide blackout in Nassau was caused by a major equipment failure at Bahamas Power and Light’s Blue Hills Power Station, triggered by severe lightning activity.
The outage began when a lightning strike caused an explosion in the 33 kV switchgear at Blue Hills, damaging the bus bar and knocking out generation at Blue Hills and parts of Clifton Pier. This fault cascaded through the network, producing the island‑wide blackout.
The 33 kV switchgear failure is a high‑magnitude fault at a major node in New Providence’s grid. When Blue Hills—one of the island’s primary generation and distribution hubs—suddenly goes offline, the remaining stations cannot instantly stabilise the load. This creates cascading trips across feeders, resulting in an island‑wide blackout”.
Clearly, BPL was faced with a situation over which it had no control. Unlike the check engine light on your car’s dashboard, which we routinely ignore until the engine packs in, BPL equipment does not allow technicians to ignore its warnings; it will shut down to protect itself. In the aftermath of the outage, rather than using their internet access for something positive, the online outrage merchants and trolls spent their evening (probably in their sweats and jockeys) lambasting BPL, its skilled and dedicated staff, and the Minister responsible.
Some of these clowns acted as if they expected the Minister to serve as a lightning conductor to deflect lightning strikes so they could continue doing whatever wicked trolls do online. For my part, I value and deeply appreciate the work and dedication of BPL workers as they entered dangerous spaces to restore our power grid.
Based on the crap and vitriol posted by some of these ill-informed, ungrateful trolls, we don’t deserve BPL’s staff, their hard work or skills. Bravo, BPL line staff and management.
Sincerely,
The Ole Geezer
