While the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) New Day government was supposed to be improving on the
works being carried out by the previous Free National Movement (FNM) administration at Bahamas
Power and Light (BPL); it would appear that the minister charged with the responsibilities was busying
himself with misleading the public as to how and why he made their live much worst and difficult.
“Sears admits misleading House on BPL fuel hedge” – The Nassau Guardian
Excerpt from this article;
“• Confirms briefed on critical trades on October 9, 2021

• Says Ministry of Finance advised against execution
• Pintard: ‘No amount of grease’ will get Gov’t off hook
  A Cabinet minister yesterday admitted misleading Parliament by initially denying he was briefed on
  the Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) fuel hedging controversy that will allegedly cost households and
  businesses over $100m.
  Alfred Sears KC, minister of works and utilities, confirmed that on October 9, 2021, he received a
  briefing on the rationale for executing transactions, known as “call option” trades, that would enable
  BPL to acquire additional cheaper fuel at below-market prices and thus keep its fuel charge – and
  overall electricity bills – relatively low with stable rates.
  The minister, who had previously told the House of Assembly on several occasions that he never
  received any such advice or recommendations, added that he forwarded the e-mail briefing and
  attachments to the Ministry of Finance and its financial secretary, Simon Wilson, for their assessment.
  Describing this as “normal” procedure for any major financial or spending decision facing the
  Government, Mr. Sears said Mr. Wilson recommended that the trades – which would have supported
  the initial BPL fuel hedge implemented in summer 2020 by increasing the utility’s stock of cheaper fuel
• not be executed.
  The minister added that despite BPL’s then-Board and management trying their “hardest to persuade”
  the Government to proceed with the oil purchases, the financial secretary’s advice won the day and
  the trades were never executed. Mr. Sears did not explain why the Davis administration took the
  Ministry of Finance’s position over that of the former BPL Board and management, which had been
  responsible for implementing the fuel hedge in summer 2020.
  Mr. Wilson, too, declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business to explain the justification
  for not proceeding with the trades (see other article Page 1B). However, under the Westminster
  system of government employed by The Bahamas, it would be virtually impossible – and highly
  irregular – for a civil servant such as the financial secretary to make the key decision on a matter
  involving sums reaching into the tens of millions of dollars.

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While Mr. Wilson and the Ministry of Finance would have submitted advice and recommendations,
the decision on whether or not to proceed with the fuel hedging trades would almost certainly have
been taken at the policymaker or ministerial level by either the full Cabinet or a Cabinet committee
based on the briefings received.
Thus it should have been the Prime Minister, Mr. Sears and their Cabinet colleagues ultimately
making the judgment call, which their political opponents claim will cost Bahamian businesses and
households a combined $100m over the course of 2023 via soaring electricity bills that need not have
been incurred if the fuel hedging trades were executed.
The fuel charge component of BPL bills is set to increase by up to 163 percent compared to the stable
10.5 cents per kilowatt (KwH) enjoyed by the utility’s customers for the just over two-year period to
October 2022. Without the cut-priced fuel produced by those trades, BPL had increasingly been
purchasing its oil at spot market prices from late 2021 onwards but not passing the full cost on to
customers – in contravention of the Electricity Act regulations – for some months.”
Now we have a new minister in charge of this ministry but as with the “New Day, Same Old Ways”
trend that the Progressive Liberal Party seems to be sailing along as a government, there seems to be
a further downward trend in at the quasi-government corporation.

“BPL fails to meet demand” – The Nassau Guardian
Excerpt from this article; “Residents on New Providence were plunged into darkness over the
weekend after Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) was unable to meet electricity demand.
On Saturday, BPL started load shedding after an “unprecedented” demand for power, soaring
temperatures, the loss of a 25 megawatt generator and the unavailability of about 25 MW of rental
generation due to planned maintenance and other issues, officials said.
“BPL was able to return its unit to service shortly after 6 p.m. on Sunday, but with load demands
exceeding projections by 20 MW, there remains a shortfall resulting in load shedding during peak
hours in New Providence,” the company said yesterday.
“BPL is presently working with its rental generation partners to return at least 10 MW of power to the
grid within the next 24 hours and another 10 MW should be available by the end of next week (May
25, 2024).
“Additionally, BPL is working to return three units that are offline due to scheduled maintenance by
the end of the month. These units will add 59 MW to the current capacity.”
BPL said load shedding remains a possibility if unforeseen incidents impact available capacity at its
plants and if temperatures continue to hover over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, increasing demand.
BPL’s Senior Manager for Corporate Communications Arnette Ingraham said yesterday the load
demand for May is “unprecedented”.

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Upon taking charge of the responsibilities for Bahamas Power and Light (BPL), the new minister
promised lower electricity rates by the summer. Now some would argue that it is not officially
summer yet; while others would argue that the minister actually meant that she would lower your
rates though load shedding; yes, it seems that we have begun load shedding but this NOT what we
expected from this New Day government and the question now becomes; exactly what are they doing
and do they even know?
In April of this year the New Day government introduced the Electricity Bill that and I quote “Energy
bill opens door to BPL move”, move to where exactly?
Let us apply some logic here as there a few things that this New Day government should have known.
Some things that this government should have known coming into office; is that BPL was operating at
a lost, this is why the previous administration had upgraded the generators and were seeking to move
to LNG as a less expensive source of fuel.
This administration should have known that though climate change our summer were getting hotter,
our traveling Climate Czar Prime Minister Philip Davis should have been quite aware of this fact, so
why were we not prepared for the recent heat wave and seem to have to resort to load shedding?
So here we are, back to load shedding.
From my understanding the plan at BPL with the new generators was that only one should be off-line
at any given time for scheduled maintenance because there was sufficient power from the other
generators to “pick up the slack” but it would appear that three were or are offline at one time for
“scheduled maintenance” and we still do not know if these are the new generators or not but my
“sources” deep within BPL has informed me that once the maintenance contract was terminated by
the New Day government, one of the new generators was taken offline for “scheduled maintenance”
and has not been able to be put back online; maybe someone at BPL can verify the veracity of this
information.
It now appears that we have returned to the early days of the Minnis administration, when the
country wanted the Hon. Desmond Bannisters head on a platter for how unreliable the power supply
was.
It would appear that some point during his tenure as the minister with responsibility of Bahamas
Power and Light, the electricity supply was brought to some sort of normalcy, and then the New Day
(PLP) government happened.
First there was the admission by Minister Sears of misleading Parliament regarding the fuel hedging
controversy raises concerns about transparency and accountability within the government. The
decision-making process surrounding such significant financial matters should be clear and well-
informed, particularly given the potential impact on households and businesses.

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Then, the failure of BPL to meet electricity demands, resulting in load shedding which only highlights
operational issues within the utility company and he inability to cope with increased demand,
especially during periods of high temperatures, underscoring the need for robust infrastructure and
planning to ensure reliable power supply.
Furthermore, the introduction of the Electricity Bill by the government raises questions about their
plans for the energy sector, particularly regarding BPL’s future direction. The lack of clarity
surrounding this bill, coupled with the ongoing challenges faced by BPL, creates uncertainty about the
government’s strategy for addressing energy needs and reducing electricity rates.
The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason; it is their nature.
END