Prime Minister and Minister of Finance the Hon. Philip Davis said before his government administration came into office, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) was carrying around $500 million in debt.

“Each year, more than $50 million was spent simply to subsidize electricity in the Family Islands,” the Prime Minister said at the Energy Reform Stakeholder Forum held at the Baha Mar Resort on Thursday, March 5, 2026.

He said, “In many of those islands, the true cost of producing a single kilowatt hour was not the 20 or 30 cents people see on their bills, but in some cases between the high thirties and the nineties once fuel transport, labour, and the inefficiency of tiny systems were counted.”

The Prime Minister said at the same time, BPL was renting around 32 megawatts of generation at roughly $40 million a year.

He explained that over 80 per cent of the existing engines were expected to reach the end of their working lives within five years.

The Prime Minister said immediate replacement needs were more than $80 million before adding a single panel of solar or a single battery.

“Millions more were being spent each year on sludge handling, environmental cleanup, and emergency repairs.

“Layered on top of those numbers was the legacy of past decisions.”

He said a $120 million voluntary separation exercise drained away the institutional knowledge BPL depends on.

The Prime Minister noted that a Rate Reduction Bond process failed, leaving BPL with land it still owes money on and banks still owed fees, with no bond in place.

He said the Clifton Pier Power Station, a project sold to the public as a tri-fuel solution, delivered dual-fuel generation in practice. Furthermore, the building can properly support only five engines, but seven were installed, with no solar integration and a fragile transmission and distribution system in New Providence, the economic heart of the country.

The Prime Minister explained that roughly $100 million of extra fuel under recovery debt was then added to the burden.

He said his government’s administration also faced a pension liability of a little over $100 million.

The Prime Minister said, “That is the house we inherited.”

He said the government’s task has been to keep the lights on while it repairs its foundations.

The Prime Minister said, “The New Energy Era is our answer to that task. It is the largest restructuring of the electricity system since the country was first electrified.”

He said, “It is ambitious, complex and long-term, and it is designed with a very simple aim in mind: to give Bahamians a power system that works.”

Minister of Energy and Transport the Hon. JoBeth Coleby; Executive Chairman, BPL, Christina Alston; Deputy Chairman, BPL, Dylan Sawyer and other stakeholders attended the forum.

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