7,000 Without Electricity
[Update: Power was restored on all circuits as of 11:06 AM.] At approximately 9:50 am, Bermuda Electric Light Company Limited (BELCO) shed load from its system, shutting off electricity distribution to approximately 7,000 customers on 15 circuits in the Eastern & Central Parishes.
Load shed was initiated when an engine failed. BELCO staff are working to restore generation capacity, and expect to have customers back on line within the hour.
BELCO says they have a planned rotation in place for load sheds, so that if rotating outages are required, they will be shared equally across the Island. They continue on to say that today’s load shed is indicative of the need to increase generating capacity at BELCO’s Central Plant, so that the Island will continue enjoy a secure and reliable electric power system, as BELCO retires aging engines, while working to meet increasing demand for electricity.
BELCO…this is not good enough. Our bills continually go up and up and the service that is being provided by you is not value for money spent. $200 monthly bills, rising energy and fuel costs, meanwhile you are taking care of your shareholders when you should be upgrading your equipment to handle all the capacity and the loads that this island has added through the years. Your engines and grid are antiquated. Buck the hell up!
Especially when you consider that homes in Bda that get $500+ per month bills compare with equall sized homes elsewhere in the world that cost many hundreds less and don’t have these unnanounced power outages !
Power outages are becoming all too frequent, frustrating and incredibly disruptive to business owners and home owners. BELCO seem to be providing electricity at 2010 prices with 1970′s technology and infrastructure. Worse still, we seem to be destined (and BELCO warns us) for even more disruptions and ‘brown outs.’ Just not good enough for a country trying to woo tourists, for business owners trying to run businesses and international companies – all of whom need a reliable source of electricity. Government should consider establishing performance measures for electricity supply, distribution and service interruption with legally enforceable fines when BELCO’s performance falls below the standards set. That might get the BELCO shareholders attention that we are not happy with this under-performing company and service.