Greaves: BL&P performed better than expected

WE are prepared!

This from Director of Operations at the Barbados Light and Power Company (BL&P), Johann Greaves, as he delivered the latest update after the passage of Hurricane Elsa.

Noting that the sole provider of energy on the island was ready to respond in the wake of any system that threatened, Greaves highlighted several of the preparations made each year prior to the hurricane, including stocking up on critical items needed to be able to do restorations. Going on to add that additional orders were made as soon as Elsa affected Barbados to ensure full ability to respond in the face of another system, Greaves stated that the company performed better than expected.

“Overall I would say that based on the Category 1 hurricane that we had and based on the models and analysis that we would have done years ago, we did not have the level of damage on our network that we would have expected. Obviously, if we had a stronger hurricane, we would have to be prepared for even more damage,” he said.

Revealing that analysis has been constantly conducted over recent years, he shed some light on the current pole replacement programme that was being rolled out. With poles graded from Class 1 to Class 5 – 1 being the strongest, Greaves explained that Barbados had been undergoing some upgrades in recent years and primarily has Class 3 and 4 poles.

“We have been doing those replacements for a number of years now prior to the storm. As poles come up for replacement, we replace them with the stronger poles and that is what we are continuing at this point in time. Some of the poles that would have been impacted were poles that were not changed out in the recent past and therefore, the poles that they would be replaced with now are poles with higher class rating. We are constantly looking back at our analysis to see if we need to do even more in terms of upgrading the class of poles that we use right now.”

Adding that strengthening of the network was continuing with the one remaining outdoor substation at Hampton soon to be put indoors, Greaves went on to say that tree management was one of the main fronts that the company needed the public to work hand-in-hand with them on.

“One of the big lessons is the whole thing around tree management. We can’t do it by ourselves, we need the support of the customers and I think we have to spend a bit more time helping to educate customers in terms of their assistance and their obligation to help ensure that we have minimal impacts from trees on our electrical infrastructure and also their homes.”

Having come under fire for the length of time taken to restore power to customers, Greaves put things in perspective by noting that after a Category 1 hurricane in other jurisdictions, it takes at least a week of assessments on the impact to the network before any restorations start and another before additional assistance from within the region is called up.

“Usually we are there for between four to six weeks. Normally in other jurisdictions that we have to respond to, it takes between a month to two months for the smaller systems for the response to be done. In this regard, I think, within the first six to seven days after the storm, we had over 90% of our customers back in supply. And based on all the territories that we have visited over the years, that is definitely an achievement – being able to restore that quickly from a hurricane,” he said.