Prime Minister the Hon. Philip Davis said that for the first time the country has a comprehensive, nationwide plan to modernize how electricity is generated, stored and distributed across the whole archipelago. 

“That plan is not a press release. It is under construction right now.  We separated generation from transmission and distribution, because that is how serious energy systems around the world are run,” the Prime Minister said during a National Address to the Nation on Monday, August 17, 2026.

He said, “Bahamas Grid Company was established to take on New Providence’s transmission and distribution, and it has delivered a $130 million foundational upgrade to the grid.

“That work includes stronger steel poles, larger conductors, modern protection devices, fibre communications, a looped transmission system, and three new high-voltage substations.” 

The Prime Minister explained that in July, those substations had reached mechanical completion and entered final testing and commissioning.

He said that work produced measurable results.

“Outage frequency in New Providence fell 45 per cent against the historic average. Outage duration fell 35 per cent, including during major weather events.” 

“On ordinary days, close to half on both measures.” 

The Prime Minister noted that smart devices prevented tens of thousands of interruptions never experienced, because they never happened.

He said Bahamas Grid Company is today a fully Bahamian-led utility, under Bahamian management, accountable to this country and that is as it should be.

The Prime Minister said in 2025, the foundational work was associated with a 45 percent reduction in outage frequency and a 35 per cent reduction in outage duration compared with historical averages.

“Those gains are real.  But the outages Bahamians are experiencing now are also real.  The lesson is not that the earlier work failed.”

He said, “The lesson is that the upgrade is not yet complete, that reliability has not improved evenly in every community, and that an old and overstressed system can still lose ground when demand rises, or critical equipment fails.  That is why our plan reaches beyond the grid.”

The Prime Minister said that at Bahamas Power and Light (BPL), the work has been just as hard and far less visible.

This includes bringing back unused or idle generators; replacing a rotor; completing major overhauls; and rebuilding turbochargers and repairing alternators.

He said, “Engines returned to service one after another this year, each adding to the margin between you and a load-shedding schedule.”

He said the government executed a fuel hedge in December, two and a half million barrels, a full year of protection, so a war on the other side of the world does not impact light bills the way it would have if it had not executed the hedge.

“And the Equity Rate Adjustment saved consumers $11.5 million last year.  One in five residential customers paid no base rate charge at all.

“We signed agreements to bring liquefied natural gas into this country, a cleaner and cheaper fuel than the heavy oil we have burned for generations. 

“We have 23 microgrid and solar projects in development across the Family Islands, close to 200 megawatts of new generation, with Bahamian companies as partners on almost every project.”

The Prime Minister said the world has noticed. 

“Moody’s upgraded our credit outlook twice in the span of one year, after not doing so in nearly two decades, and cited our energy reform as one of the major reasons.”

He said, “That is how a crisis becomes an opportunity: we stop spending only to survive the next emergency and start investing to prevent the next emergency.”

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