For months, residents of New Providence, Bahamas, have endured repeated widespread power outages, and state-owned utility Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) has consistently pinned the blame on an act of nature: lightning strikes. But a local experienced electrical engineer is pushing back against that narrative, arguing that systemic mismanagement and neglected maintenance — not unexpected weather events — are the root causes of the island’s persistent power disruptions.
Quentin Knowles, an electrical engineer and contractor who designs distribution systems for residential, commercial and hospitality projects across the Bahamas, says any properly engineered and well-maintained power grid is built to withstand routine lightning activity. Speaking to The Tribune, Knowles questioned the frequency and scope of outages tied to lightning by BPL, noting that the utility’s explanation does not align with basic industry standards.
BPL has leaned heavily on the lightning excuse for major outages throughout 2024. In September, the company blamed a lightning strike at the Blue Hills Power Station for a total blackout across New Providence, marking the second major strike-related outage at that facility in just a few months. Back in July, another strike at the plant left entire communities without power for multiple hours, prompting BPL’s board of directors to order a post-incident review. The utility has also pinned outages on unseasonably high summer temperatures, but disruptions have continued unabated even after autumn cooling set in, undermining that claim.
Knowles points out that lightning protection technology, including surge suppressors and strike energy absorption devices, has been a standard industry tool for decades. When correctly designed, installed and regularly serviced, these systems neutralize the vast majority of energy from a lightning strike, preventing widespread outages. “Lightning occurs, and it occurs all the time,” Knowles noted, adding that while an unusually powerful strike can occasionally trigger a localized disruption, consistent outages following every major thunderstorm point to clear failures in protection system upkeep, design or installation.
The engineer also raised red flags about BPL’s grid design, questioning why a single equipment fault at one power station can knock out power to the entire island of New Providence. Drawing a simple, relatable analogy, he compared the failure to a full hotel losing power because of a faulty hair dryer in one guest room: under normal, safe design, only the single outlet’s breaker should trip, not cut power to the entire building. “That should never happen,” he said of island-wide blackouts triggered by single-point faults, adding that such widespread failures are clear evidence of flawed design, inadequate protective infrastructure or deferred maintenance.
Knowles also rejected another common BPL justification for chronic outages: that the Bahamas’ power grid is simply too old to function reliably. He noted that many power utilities across the United States operate generation and transmission equipment that is more than 50 years old, and those assets remain fully functional because they receive consistent, proactive maintenance. “I don’t really buy that argument that hey, we have this old, ancient, ageing system that needs to be replaced throughout,” he said. While he acknowledged that full grid modernization is a necessary long-term goal, he argued that the vast majority of current outages could have been avoided if consistent preventive maintenance practices had been enforced from the start.
Knowles estimates that more than 90 percent of the country’s current power problems could be eliminated through four core steps: consistent preventive maintenance, properly installed and maintained lightning protection systems, system adjustments when new power loads are added to the grid, and regular continuous monitoring of critical generation and transmission equipment.
He pointed to the high-profile July 2024 failure of a 15MVA transformer at Blue Hills, which triggered an island-wide blackout, as an example of the consequences of neglected upkeep. BPL initially claimed the explosion was caused by an underground cable fault. While Knowles emphasized he has no independent direct knowledge of the specific cause of that failure, he noted that all utility-scale transformers of that size are equipped with built-in monitoring devices that track internal heat, power load and component degradation, allowing operators to address emerging issues long before they escalate to catastrophic failure. A properly maintained transformer, he said, would never fail in such a dramatic, destructive way.
Drawing on decades of industry experience, Knowles also suggested that some outages officially blamed on lightning may actually stem from other unaddressed issues. For example, he said rainwater can seep into unmaintained cable trenches and reach degraded, faulty insulation, triggering protective breakers to trip — an outcome that could easily be misrepresented or misattributed to a coincidental lightning strike. He clarified that he has no concrete documentary evidence of this specific issue at BPL, but the scenario aligns with common problems seen in poorly maintained grids globally.
A striking detail that underscores the long-running nature of the Bahamas’ power grid problems came from an engineering WhatsApp group, where a member shared a decades-old Tribune headline from nearly 50 years ago. That headline reported identical issues: chronic power cuts and grid instability at the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, BPL’s predecessor agency. For Knowles, this find is proof that the same systemic problems have been left unaddressed for generations, and that the public has not been given a full, honest account of what is causing persistent outages. “I don’t think the full picture has been given to us,” he said.
Knowles stressed that his assessment reflects general industry knowledge, not firsthand work on BPL’s utility-scale transmission and distribution network, but his expertise designing smaller-scale distribution systems gives him clear insight into how grid protection and maintenance should function. He also noted that utilities in most other countries conduct full, transparent investigations after every major outage to identify root causes and implement corrective changes, and it remains unclear whether BPL follows this standard practice.