Mass Outage Updates

Bermuda Electric Light Company Limited (BELCO) today advised that all customers have had power restored following an island wide outage.

Initial investigations point to an equipment fault that caused the outage. As of 9.45 pm, all circuits had been restored. If any customers remain without power they should call BELCO on 955.

BELCO President Wayne Caines said: “I sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvience caused by today’s outage. We will be carrying out a root cause analysis on today’s outage and will report on the outcome in due course. Let me thank our staff at BELCO who acted quickly and professionally to ensure that power was restored as quickly and safely as possible.”

As of 8:30pm approximately 90% of our customers’ power has been restored.

Bermuda Electric Light Company Limited (BELCO) today advised that an island wide outage occurred at 3.21 pm.

BELCO’s Crisis Management Team has been activated and staff are assessing the situation and plant.

BELCO’S first priority is to ensure the safety of staff and the public. In order to restore power we procced according to a defined plan to assess equipment and assets in order to systematically restore generation units. We also simultaneously assess our grid infrastructure to ensure that power can be safely restored to customers.

As generation is restored and engines are brought back online, we then proceed with a phased restoration of customers beginning with critical infrastructure such as the hospital and the airport. This process takes some time as power needs to be restored in a manner that ensures the integrity of the grid.

Customers who may need lifesaving equipment should consider going to the Hospital or similar medical facility with back-up electricity supply. Customers are also advised to unplug sensitive electronic equipment to prevent potential damage throughout the restoration process.

The public is also advised that the process to bring all customers online can take some time and power may go on and off during this process.

BELCO will continue working until all customers are brought back online and would ask for the public’s patience as we bring restore power safely.

BELCO President Wayne Caines said: “First and foremost is the safety of our staff and the public. I’m pleased to report that all of our staff are safe and accounted for. Our engineers are currently assessing the situation at the plant and the cause of the outage. We will continue to keep the public updated as progress is made and will bring power back on in a staged and safe manner.”

The public are asked not to call 955 to report an outage at this time.