Power restored to 92% of BL&P customers

Less than 10 per cent of Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) customers are still without power, five days after electricity service was cut island-wide during the passage of Hurricane Elsa.

And the company’s Communications Advisor Nichole Scantlebury said while BL&P was doing all it could to get the remaining customers back on the grid as soon as possible, it had to be done safely.

She reported that as at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, electricity had been fully restored to 92 per cent of the company’s roughly 130 000 customers.

Scantlebury said that from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, crews restored power to BL&P’s Northpoint, Sam Lord’s, Sunbury, Belleplaine, Dukes to Bulkley and Holetown feeders that service more than 24 communities across St Philip, St Andrew, St James, St John, St Joseph and St Lucy.

“Our crew puts safety first – every job, every day – and that commitment is keeping them safe as we continue to work on restoring service to the final eight per cent of customers still without power,” Scantlebury said.

“While 92 per cent of customers who lost power because of Hurricane Elsa have now been restored, there remain many smaller pockets of outages that will take more time and effort to resolve, due either to their complexity or the need for greater repair work. This is another critical stage of the restoration.”

During Wednesday afternoon into the evening, the company continued to work on several other feeders that service customers across several parishes.

Stopping short of giving a specific timeline for full restoration of service, Scantlebury acknowledged that the current circumstances were “unfortunate” and trying for everyone, adding: “We remain as committed as we were at the start of the restoration efforts on Saturday, July 3, to seeing each customer safely restored in the shortest possible time.”

On Tuesday, the utility company reported that due to extensive repair work that was required in some specific areas, it could be days before power was restored to all customers. As a result, arrangements were made for linesmen from neighbouring Dominica to assist.

BL&P also noted that in addition to restoration work, teams were in the field assessing the damage.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)