BELCO Ready To Assist Restoration In Bahamas

September 4, 2019

BELCO has confirmed that they are “on standby to send crews to assist in restoring power to The Bahamas Islands affected by Category 5 Hurricane Dorian.

“When it became clear that Hurricane Dorian would impact The Bahamas Islands, BELCO management reached out to their partners in the Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation [CARILEC] to offer assistance with restoration efforts,” the company said.

BELCO President Dennis Pimentel said: “Our first thoughts are for the safety of all the residents of the Bahamas. It’s clear that this powerful category 5 hurricane, the second most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic, has caused several deaths and extensive damage to property and infrastructure on the Abacos and Grand Bahama islands.

“Our team is on standby as assessments need to be carried out and a plan of action put into place by the Bahamian disaster management team. We are in regular communication with our CARILEC counterparts and are ready to assist once our crews have the necessary accommodations and other considerations to effectively help with restoration efforts.”

Mr. Pimentel also noted that, in addition to being members of, and benefitting from the assistance of CARILEC, BELCO will also benefit from the assistance of Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp, saying: “One of the major benefits of being acquired by Algonquin is having a mutual aid agreement in place.

“Through Algonquin’s Utility Division which employs over 130 Linesmen, BELCO will have access to a number of these resources which can be deployed to Bermuda in the event that we are impacted by a hurricane, greatly improving our ability to rapidly restore power throughout the island,” said Mr. Pimentel.

Update: Bermuda has a long standing relationship with CARILEC and the islands frequently help each other after hurricanes. BELCO has assisted in other islands in the past, and Bermuda has also received help, back in 2014 after the double hit from Fay and Gonzalo, we had linesmen come in to help our restoration efforts, traveling in from Belize, Barbados, Cayman and The Bahamas.

Locals who wish to donate to help The Bahamas can do so via the Bermuda Red Cross, which launched an appeal to help those affected by Hurricane Dorian.

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