FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2025

Bahamas Power and Light Company Limited (BPL) provides the following comprehensive update on the extended power outage affecting customers in The Abacos. The outage originated at the Wilson City Power Station (WCPS) on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, and continues to impact communities across Central, South, and North Abaco.

BPL confirms that its power generation units remain intact and operational. However, the root cause of the system-wide disruption is the failure of the station’s main electrical compressor—an essential auxiliary component that regulates airflow within the power station. Without proper airflow, the generation engines cannot operate.

Timeline and Cause of the Outage

At approximately 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday, December 9, WCPS tripped offline, initially affecting consumers in Central and South Abaco. As the issue progressed, it later impacted customers in the north.

Marvin Green, Northern Family Island Regional Manager, explained the sequence of events:

“Technicians at WCPS began routine maintenance on power generation Unit 2 on December 1, 2025. Three days after this routine maintenance began, our main electrical compressor—the auxiliary which maintains the air supply to the station—malfunctioned.”

Green noted that initially, power generation remained unaffected because the station’s backup diesel compressor supplied the required airflow.

“The malfunctioning of this unit was not an issue for power generation as the station is also equipped with a backup diesel compressor. So, we engaged the diesel compressor to provide air supply to the power station—without it the machines cannot operate,” he said.

However, on Tuesday, the diesel compressor also failed.

“Yesterday the diesel compressor failed—this then rendered the plant without any auxiliary (air supply) to sustain it. As the (air) pressure decreased, the plant tripped (offline). It’s not a situation where the power generation units are not working. It’s a situation where both of our auxiliaries have failed.”

Emergency Response Efforts

Green reported that emergency teams immediately attempted to source spare parts from identical compressors, though those parts proved incompatible. A local machine shop also attempted modifications, but this effort was unsuccessful.

The team then began searching for portable compressors capable of providing the required 15–25 bars of pressure.

“We located a vendor with a portable compressor, and efforts were underway until 3:00 a.m. Wednesday, December 10, to couple the parts and bring the machine online, but the compressor only reached 12 bars. We need a minimum of 15 bars, because once it is started we need to be able to maintain a minimum of 12 bars so that it doesn’t trip.”

With no airflow available at WCPS, BPL redirected power from the Cooper’s Town Power Station (CTPS), which normally serves North Abaco, to provide rotational relief for Central and South Abaco customers.

“Up to this point we continue with the rotations,” Green said. “We have reached out to the owner of the portable compressor which we were hoping to fill the gap as we worked to address the issue during the early morning hours Wednesday, but he was unavailable. He is on his way to the plant this morning to see if we can increase the output to get the feeders back online.”

BPL has also checked all other available assets.

“We have checked with our Clifton Pier Power Station (CPPS), but that compressor is currently in use. We have made contact with a vendor in Nassau that has a compressor, which we are planning to transport to the island today.”

New Compressor Status

A replacement compressor for WCPS was ordered and was scheduled to arrive December 8, 2025, shipping delays have moved the expected arrival date to January 10, 2026.

“From when we were first made aware of the issue, we moved as swiftly as possible to procure the replacement compressor,” said BPL CEO Toni Seymour. “Delays like this cannot be predicted. However, we understand the critical importance of this component to reliable service, and we will continue to explore every available option to restore full power to our Abaco consumers as quickly and safely as possible.” She continued, “Our teams are working around the clock, and we remain fully committed to keeping the public informed as we work toward a permanent resolution.”

Updates from The Cays

Power challenges in the Cays coincided with the issues at WCPS. While mainland Abaco experienced intermittent supply due to the auxiliary failure, Hope Town also encountered an electrical malfunction on its generation unit.

In August, BPL secured four power generation units to strengthen supply across the Cays—two for Hope Town, one for Man-O-War Cay, and one for Guana Cay.

“We have two units to power Hope Town, but due to insufficient land mass, we can only employ one unit at a time. We have been in communication with the owner of the property who is expected to map out the parcel of land that we can utilize for the second unit,” Green explained.

“The unit which is currently on Hope Town experienced an electrical malfunction yesterday; the second unit is currently on mainland Abaco and will be transported to Hope Town and brought online today.”

To provide immediate relief, BPL temporarily fed Hope Town from Man-O-War Cay. This worked until Man-O-War Cay’s transformer failed.

Green has confirmed that teams are working to address the issue within The Cays today.

Commitment to Restoration

BPL’s teams across mainland Abaco and the Cays continue working around the clock to restore stability to the grid. The company fully understands the frustration caused by prolonged outages and sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience to customers.

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