BELCO Earns Second EEI Response Award
BELCO has been announced as a recipient of an Edison Electric Institute [EEI] Emergency Response Award for restoration efforts following Hurricane Lee and Post Tropical Cyclone Idalia, marking BELCO’s second Emergency Response Award.
A spokesperson said, “The Emergency Response Awards recognise recovery and assistance efforts of electric companies following service disruptions caused by extreme weather or other natural events. The winners were chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process.
“Post Tropical Cyclone Idalia passed by Bermuda on September 2 with winds of more than 50 mph, causing approximately 3,100 customers to lose power. The vast majority of outages were caused by vegetation coming into contact with our overhead network.
“Hurricane Lee passed by the island on September 14 as a Category 1 hurricane, forcing the closure of schools and businesses. As with previous storms, outages were mainly caused by overgrown vegetation which resulted in 11,300 customers left without power at the peak of the storm. All customers had power restored within 72 hours.”
BELCO President Wayne Caines said, “Our entire team at BELCO is honoured by this award which is a testament to the hard work and professionalism of our staff. Our team at BELCO have well-established protocols for all aspects of preparing for and then restoring power once a storm has passed. On behalf of all our staff at BELCO, I would like to thank EEI for their recognition of our efforts to restore power to our valued customers quickly and safely.”
EEI President and CEO Dan Brouillette said, “I applaud BELCO’s commitment to restoring service under challenging conditions following both Hurricane Lee and Post Tropical Cyclone Idalia. I am honoured to present BELCO and its storm response team with this well-earned recovery award.”
Great that they fix poles after a hurricane quickly. We all appreciate that. But far fewer would fall if they did just a little preventative maintenance. Several poles around the island with rotten lower halves. Just this week I was on the road that Rayclan is Pembroke Paint is on. Sorry Don’t remember the name. Outside the bike repair place is a pole that has a ratchet strap (just one) holding up a pole from falling. No exaggeration when I say 30 degrees at least. Then there are 3 or 4 more straps literally keeping the wires tied up from touching a truck. I asked a worker outside what had happened and was shocked to learn that it happened back in September! I asked why nobody had called Belco and was told that Messages had been left with Belco. Nobody shows up.
Lets see how many BELCO workers see this and pretend they didn’t see it. Caines, Famous keep up the good work. We are already a 2.5 world country.
Drove by today. No charge. That strap is soooo sketchy
Bit like the civil service awards: commended for merely doing your job. But then again, ‘Milky’ Caines never passes up the chance of a photo-op!
Not like they had any competition.