Hamilton, Bermuda
Following the passage of Hurricane Humberto, BELCO has made great progress and restored power to 24,905 customers or 95% as of 6:00pm. While work continues on main branch lines, crews are getting to smaller pockets of outages in neighbourhoods in all parishes. A BELCO spokesperson explained: “It is clear that a number of tornadoes hit the island, which uprooted a large amount of vegetation and caused extensive damage to our infrastructure, more than had been identified in early assessments of our transmission and distribution system. As a result it may take a little longer than anticipated to get all our customers reconnected.�?
BELCO was also very pleased to welcome back old friends who are reuniting with the company to restore power to affected communities. A number of recent BELCO retirees have joined the effort to repair the substantial damage to Bermuda’s electrical system sustained during Hurricane Humberto. Their extensive training means that they can hit the ground running. Their experience, skill and professionalism will help to further increase our capacity to address the remaining outages and bring households back online quickly and efficiently. This is even more important as we prepare to strengthen our systems and brace for the potential threat of Tropical Storm Jerry early next week.
In addition, we are very fortunate to have four linesman and a safety officer from Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. join our crews to assist in restoration efforts under a mutual aid agreement that has been put in place this summer. The Algonquin team will assist until restoration efforts are completed and may stay to assist with any preparations that need to be done in advance of Tropical Storm Jerry, which is expected to impact the island on Tuesday, September 24.
As a reminder, the public are asked to not call the company unless there is an emergency, which includes a pole fire or downed power line. BELCO crews will continue to work between 8am and midnight across the island to restore power. BELCO would like to thank all those who have been instrumental in getting the work done efficiently and safely and asks for the public’s patience as work continues. Residents are encouraged to visit the BELCO website at www.belco.bm for up-to-date information.###
About BELCO
Bermuda Electric Light Company Limited (BELCO) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascendant Group Limited (Ascendant), a publicly traded investment holding company whose shares trade on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (ticker: AGL.BH). Ascendant is also the parent company of AG Holdings Limited, which includes operating companies, AIRCARE LTD., IFM Limited, iEPC Limited and Ascendant Properties Limited. BELCO was established in 1904 as Bermuda’s sole supplier of electricity and currently operates generating plant and transmission and distribution systems to service 35,000 metered connections.