Mechanical failure of Wartsila engines causes power outage

Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) confirmed yesterday that a mechanical failure at its Station A power plant – which houses the new Wartsila engines – caused the hours-long power outage that impacted several communities across New Providence.

BPL stated there were problems at the station shortly after 9 a.m. and by 9:51 a.m., engineers were able to get the engines back online. Power was completely restored by 11:34 a.m.

The widespread outage affected areas including Bernard Road, Monastery Park, Sands Addition, Garden View Dive, Jean Street, Arawak Cay, portions of West Bay Street, Ocean Spray, Olympia, Mosmor (US Embassy), St. Alban’s Drive, Chippingham Road, Fox Hill and portions of Elizabeth Estates.

BPL stated that the Marathon area also suffered outages, but because of an issue with high voltage cables in the area.

Bahamas Electrical Workers Union (BEWU) President Kyle Wilson said it’s important to highlight that the issue was not the result of BPL workers or engines.

“I have gotten calls and text messages today from persons expressing anger especially on social media towards BPL. I am currently stationed here at the Blue Hills station where we’re doing overhauls and all of our generators, except what we are overhauling or doing work on, are working fine. Even the Agrekko engines aren’t having any issues. I inquired with the guys at Clifton Pier and there weren’t any issues there,” he told Guardian Business.

“Persons would look at it and say, oh it’s BPL, but it’s not us. We take the blame a lot of time for issues that take place from the rental companies or from Wartsilla and it falls on us. But I can assure you it wasn’t us. All of our BPL generators are working fine and there were no disturbances from the BPL side. BPL guys take the heat for situations that they’re not even aware of.”

BPL touted the installation of seven new Wartsila engines at its Clifton Pier Power Station as a cure for the issue of frequent load shedding that has plagued the island for many years.

The new engines were installed in December 2019.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/mechanical-failure-of-wartsila-engines-causes-power-outage/