15,800 Customers Temporarily Lose Power
[Updated] There are unofficial reports of power outages across the island today [July 14] with reports indicating that some areas in parishes including Somerset, Southampton, Warwick, Devonshire, and St George’s seem to have been affected. We are awaiting clarification from BELCO on the matter, and will update as able.
Update 12.54pm: BELCO confirmed that 15,800 customers are without power after load was shed from BELCO’s system when three engines tripped
A BELCO spokesperson said, “At 11:59 am, load was shed from BELCO’s system when three engines tripped. Efforts are underway to restore power to approximately 15,800 customers who have been affected across the Island. The cause is under investigation.
“Customers are advised to call 955 only if they see that their neighbours’ power has been restored, but theirs has not. Also, customers are advised to unplug small appliances, lamps and electronic equipment (especially those that are not plugged into surge protectors), until power is restored to avoid potential damage.
“BELCO thanks customers for their patience, as we work to restore power as quickly as possible.”
Update 1.09pm: We are unsure if the two are related, but the traffic lights by St John’s in Pembroke are not working, and it is creating some issues on the flow of traffic.
Update 1.39pm: A BELCO spokesperson said all but approximately 740 customers have had their power restored, as restoration continues.
Update 2.19pm: A BELCO spokesperson said, “At 2:14 pm, the three engines have been returned to service and restoration is nearly complete, with the exception of approximately 100 customers in the White Hill area. Crews will work to restore electricity service to those customers, as quickly as possible. BELCO thanks customers for their patience.”
Update 4.47pm: BELCO says all power has been restored to affected customers.
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- BELCO Explains Recent Power Outages | Bernews.com | July 27, 2012
Thank god for Solar power wooooohoooo!!!!
Hope you make it past sun down.
You’re real smart. They store power silly, they don’t stop working when the sun goes down. So many speak without proper knowledge its comical!
Ba$tards didn’t get their rate increases so they increase the fuel surcharge and institute random power cuts as a form of payback.
I think that they did get a rate increase in May but it wasn’t what they were looking for. If I am not mistaken it was 25% of what they requested.
Such BS – get your facts straight before you make ASANINE STATMENTS.
Uh, that should be asinine statements, Rockfish…
Thank God for diesel generators! Much cheaper than solar too. Wooooohoooo!
Cablevision was out island wide as well. Just like on a normal day.
OMG that was too damn funny .. The truth always is , eh ?
Here’s another .
Bernew’s update @ 1.09pm relating to the St John’s Rd traffic lights .
”and it is creating some issues with traffic flow”
Yeah , like the traffic is running more smoothly ! !
The Belco and Cablevision outages were probably related.
I pay good money for this! You should have updated infrastructure a long time ago when you were making huge profits!!!
Who is in the C.E,O. of Belco ? Vince left very abruptly….for reasons unknown.
What goes around comes around. BELCO has been so evil to their customers lately by jacking up the fuel surcharges in these struggling economic times! Too bad it’s us who are affected!
Greed is a sin!
BELCO, why do you have Facebook & Twitter if you don’t use them?
Belco, why do you have a telephone if you don’t answer it?
Belco, why do you provide electricity if you dont provide electricity?
winner
How the hell are you supposed to read Belco’s advise online – when you have no frigging power.
This is the 4th dropped power in 6 weeks in Smiths. Ludicrous.
Too all those people that complain about the cost of electricity and the fuel surcharge, PLEASE get the facts right…….Belco has to pay the GOVERNEMENT fee first then pay for the fuel. Secondly green energy still has to be covered by Belco so when there is no sun and no wind you all still rely on Belco. SO please stop flapping your gobbs and thank the people that work on the generators that keep the power going for the island.
To all those people that got my power back on thank you.
Flywheel, we do not need to thank those that got are power back on……. it should never have gone out in the first place !!!!! there was no hurricane or high winds….what the hell is going on ?
We have this problem every summer when everyone’s got the a/c running. With all the new houses and office buildings going up, it seems that things will only get worse. I believe Belco when they say they need to improve their facilities, but I don’t see where we have to pay for it. Belco pulls in a ton of money and always has. Instead of putting so much money in the hands of greedy management and shareholders, they need to take those profits that they made off us and invest it into their company. These improvements will allow them to make even more money, so they need to pay for their own improvements and stop trying to bleed the public dry.
You are so right Emmoni.
Really? I thought Belco was whining that they weren’t selling as much electricity as prior years because so many hotels have closed, people have left etc.
They need to improve their infrastructure but they sure don’t need their grand expansion plans.
Yes Belco is a big thorn in most peoples sides these days but atleast they can get the juice back up quick. Plus with Government and the public giving them a hard time to build there new station, watch out because this is the beginning of many more to come in terms of outages. Banana Republic here we come with rolling brown outs. Think about that on both sides of the house and weigh up the options because like a regular customer your business that also have high billings for your services will also be affected. So in my opinion you need to come to the table and talk out the solutions for the infastructure of Bermuda and stop wasting the money.
You are very welcome Flywheel.
One thing not mentioned in the article or comments: Why did 3 engines trip?
Because the fouth one got in the way………..bwahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
lol
When I lived in Cuba it was common to have power failures and equipment breaking down.Get used to it everyone this is the new reality of Bermuda.Look around,the roads are a mess,the roadsides and forests are covered with litter,beggers and homeless on every corner,food stores going out of business and no money coming into the country.Matter of fact there are 35 leaving the island sales on emoo today and 82 rental properties.When I came in on a flight from Miami last night…42 residents 6 tourists in the line.There is no more money.
Taking your points one at a time:
The roads are mostly fine, no worse than anywhere else, and better than many.
Roadsides and forests are not covered with litter, they could be cleaner, but they are better than almost anywhere in the USA.
Beggars and homeless on EVERY corner? Really? Really??
ONE food store MAY be going out of business.
No money coming into the country? Wrong. It could be a hell of a lot better, but the hotels and restaurants that offer a good product have no trouble filling beds and tables…and people will come back to that. What needs to happen is that EVERY hotel and restaurant needs to understand this, and they don’t….yet.
So, enough with the superlatives and exaggerations mate. It does nobody any good.
Rard,
“The roads are mostly fine”….the bullets “mostly” missed the vital organs but still paralysed the patient
The roadsides could be cleaner….if there were people who cared and didn’t toss their rubbish out the window i could agree with you.Take a look mate its a mess.
Why do you compare Bermuda to the USA…i didn’t.
Walk throught Vic park any time of the day and you will see and smell the vagrants…they are there mate…take your head out of the sand.
One food store IS going out of business and our prices are going to go up.
Conyers lays off 6 more workers this week.
Well over 250 IT and Finance jobs moved to Canada and other countries.
Those jobs will never come back,mate.
Resturant food is over priced and sub par.Check out any “best before” date on most produce in the grocery store and you’ll see the true story.
We’re eating food that would have been tossed out in most countries.
No exaggerations from me ….take your head out of your a**
Sharky, you are so on the money….
We no longer go out to restaurants where they charge $14 —-$17 for a glass of wine eg Hamilton Princess, Fourways, Elbow Beach. Try not being so greedy and we will visit you. No wonder the tourists are not coming with our sky high prices
Um, actually it’s two large supermarkets, not one, that are going out of business.
Less demand for food due to lower population = less need for food retail = Bermudians unemployed.
You make me laugh. You should get out in the real world and see that we actually have it pretty damn good. Even “in this economy”.
Where the hell do you travel on our roads ? there are pot holes all over the Island…some so deep that you have to cross the street to avoid them……the roads are covered by litter…why the hell are our guess workers and Bermudians having these clean ups ? when was the last time you went out for dinner ?and had to deal with a beggar ? that was in your face ? enough of your superlatives and exaggerations mate,
When I have visitors from overseas as they travel about the roads in cars or bikes they often say how glad they are that they aren’t recouperating from rectal surgery. The roads ARE the pits.
As for the litter , you can’t drive or walk ten feet without seeing trash all over the roadsides and surrounding shrubbery.
The areas you’re thinking about in the US are inner cities. Rural America is much cleaner than we are . Pristine we are not .. far from it actually.
xfiles,you are so right…the roads are a mess the beggars are out of control, and people digging in the trash from restarants for food !!!!!!!!! how friggen bad is is this ? and now we have power cuts !!!!!food stores going out of business who is the next one ? I think the next grocery shop to close down is also in the west end and it is not the market place…..
This isn’t the first year we’ve had this happen so why are people like you acting like it is? This has happened every summer that I remember for years. We’ve even had island-wide blackouts. It has nothing to do with any ‘new reality’ for Bermuda. In fact, if you see my other post, part of the problem is that we have TOO MANY new buildings going up which becomes a strain on Belco’s resources. Using your argument that many people are leaving the island, it would mean that there’s LESS strain on Belco’s equipment so we should be seeing LESS blackouts, not more, so your point is invalid.
Your post is full of exaggerations. Stop with the scaremongering.
For all the vast knowledge of Belco’s inner workings I find it interesting that you probably have never set one foot on th property other than to pay a bill of whine about Belco. Call around there and come for a tour and then post your comments after you see what REALLY goes on to keep the light running. Better yet go to some of th schools science fairs and see the childrens projects you might learn something. What you see of Belco is the men in the trucks that fix th lines and install yor meters. The backbone of what makes Belco operate are the people that spend many hours on shift day and night working to ensure that when you want to trun on that switch so you can see the crying face of your child at 3 in the morning that light is there. So stop your belly aching and help provide a solution and funds to back it up otherwise thank the people that are making it happen for you and the rest of the island day in and day out. So please until you have walked in the shoes of the people that do the work so that you can enjoy your AC, Cook your dinner, get a warm bath, and watch th tv you so enjoy and to turn on the switch 3 in the morning to tend to your crying child, please don’t talk to hear yourself until you have the facts about the whole organisation.
You sound bitter and angry, do you work for Belco? Why are you assuming they have a crying child to attend to at 3 in the morning? Writing a whole bunch of nothing that had nothing to do with that persons comment. Who cares what they have to do-THEY ARE PAID FOR IT! They are supposed to provide people with electricity so excuse everyone for being upset that EVERY SINGLE SUMMER the power goes out. If we went to the hospital and expected a doctor to be there and one wasn’t and complained would you tell someone they need to tour a hospital to see how hard a doctor works? Seriously read your comment and realize how ridiculous you sound. The general public does not care to know what Belco workers are doing or have to do, they are paid to do it so do it. Let’s not even talk about their “load shedding” at random times and not even warning people in certain areas that they will be doing this. It’s 2012-people have many electronics that can be damaged by them just shutting power off at random times without warning so people can unplug them.
Having lived in several other countries, including Canada and the U.K. I believe that BELCO generally do an excellent job providing service to Bermuda. I also find that whenever we have a power cut in our area the BELCO crews are quick to turn out and very efficient in repairing the fault. Yes, I was ticked off this morning when we had a power failure at a really bad time for me, but on balance, I commend BELCO for doing a terrific job. To blame them for the price of oil is just ludicrous, and the very thought of someone else taking over responsibility for providing us with power is frightening.
BELCO is top of the list for reliability across all other Caribbean islands. The posts here clearly indicate what a thankless job they have done. Deliver top performance, people expect it ad complain about every single hiccup. As much as Bermudians travel, they still fail to realize how 98% of the planet is worse off by a long shot. Never mind the cluelessness as to how an electrical grid works yet they all are experts on what happened…
I still think BELCO should have updated their infrastructure a long time ago when they were making huge profits year after year. Vince Ingham saw what was coming and jumped ship to a different gravy train! Can’t blame me. I’m not the CEO now!!!
Truth you are probably right. But now Vince can further make bad decision for the entire island now and lets see who slaps him on the wrist once he does make the mistakes.
The cost of utilities here is outrageously high, so don’t compare us to Cuba or other Caribbean countries. The costs there are a fraction. I lived in the UK for 15 years, and power doesn’t fail – it just doesn’t happen, and at maybe one tenth of the cost. There are no apples for apples, we have hurricanes, they don’t, but they also have bitter cold and a huge grid to manage, we seem to mess up one tiny grid. It is clear that BELCO needs to reinvest at the expense of shareholders dividends and drop prices. I truly hope people look for ways to cut BELCO out of their monthly spend – wind power, solar power, in the absence of another power supplier (in the UK there are self-regulating choices)..its our only alternative.
read they annual report trolls. For decades the majority of profits were allocated to infrastructure. Shareholders see a minority of profits. This is how BELCO became #1 in reliability across the Caribbean. And also how they ended up with ungrtaeful, non-literate trolls blogging bad things about them.
@ The Future. You sound like a shareholder. If BELCO had invested in infrastructure they would have had the money for the upgrade they’re going on about!?
Nobody is buying the propaganda anymore. If they invested in infrastructure they wouldn’t be needing to invest in infrastructure. Belco sounds more and more like the PLP.
So much a mess and now on top of everything we are saying gay and lesbian tourists don’t come here we don’t want your money ! Jeez
The Future sounds like someone that blogs all day.
It’s not who you know it’s WATT you know………………………..
Just for the record, lost power again this morning (Monday) at 8.05am.
Hey at least my electric bill went down a few dollars. The more outages, the more profit loss
My new Belco bill:
energy usage: $159.62
fuel surcharge: $128.33
So basically my fuel surcharge is only $30 less than my energy charge and my apartment is under 500 sq/ft. If they aren’t making enough money to invest in their infrastructure then something is very wrong with their business model, very wrong.