Sands: Baha Mar Not Affected By BPL Outages

Despite a string of repeated power outages this summer, Baha Mar Senior Vice President Robert Sands said yesterday that the resort has not been impacted by the unreliable power supply, as he called for residents to remain patient with Bahamas Power and Light (BPL).

“[There’s been] no impact at all,” Sands said.

“It’s been an irritant. We understand that they have plans that are in place. We have to give them the chance to have those plans executed, materialized.

“Reliability has improved significantly in this country over the last few months. We have to be patient. There are some stumbling blocks, but by and large, we have been supportive of the progress and also the future of BPL.

“As I said, it’s been an irritant, but it has not been a stumbling block to the growth of tourism in our country.”

Sands said that private corporations have been “cooperating” with BPL for years during power challenges, through energy conservation efforts, by operating on standby generation.

When asked what the cost has been for the mega resort to run on generators, Sands did not provide a number, however he said that BPL is “fair” to “those corporate companies.”

“There are opportunities when the grid is challenged that they ask corporate Bahamas, that has the capacity to operate on their standby generation, to support them for a limited time factor,” Sands said.

“This is not a new occurrence. I think that’s good corporate citizenship.

“In a country where entities like Baha Mar do well and benefit from the country, it’s only important that we support them, give back to support the country through challenging times.”

Frequent power outages have occurred throughout The Bahamas since the beginning of the summer despite government officials and energy representatives claiming that BPL was ready for the summer demand.

Officials have blamed the outages, which sometimes last hours, on high temperatures and old energy infrastructure, asking for residents to practice energy conservation as officials work to keep the power on.

Kaitlyn Babb
The Nassau Guardian
August 11, 2026