Know The Signs

Severe storms and natural disasters can cause a variety of electrical safety hazards in and around our homes. Lightning, downed power lines, and floods are just a few of the serious safety concerns associated with storms.

To help protect you from storm-related electrical hazards following a storm, The Grand Bahama Power Authority may deem a residence or business unsafe to energize. Here is a quick guide to help you identify why your home or business may not receive power.

Stay Safe

As we make safety our top priority, we ask that you do the same. Please follow these critical electrical safety guidelines:

  • Stay away from downed power lines. Always assume that a downed power line is energized, and move away to safety.
  • Stay out of floodwaters. Floodwaters can hide energized power lines or other hazards, or put you at risk of drowning.
  • Caution: Use portable generations safely. DO NOT connect a portable generator to home circuits. Plug appliances directly to the generator. Connecting a generator to home circuits may cause power to flow to outside lines, posing life-threatening danger to restoration crews. Also, portable generators must not be taken into a residence or any enclosed space where deadly carbon monoxide gases could build up.

What You Need To Know

At GBPC, safety comes first – for you and for our team members who work to keep the power flowing to your community. With our comprehensive plans to restore power, our year-round commitment to hardening our system and the way we recognize the priority of your neighbourhood’s needs during and after severe weather, our focus is on our customers.

If your electric service system is damaged due to severe weather, it is GBPC’s responsibility to handle actual repairs to service and the responsibility of individual customers to repair other components.

STAY AWAY FROM DOWN UTILITY LINES!

Assume that all overhead wires are energized at lethal voltages. Never assume that a wire is safe to touch even if it is down or appears to be insulated. Never touch a fallen overhead power line.

Call GBPC to report fallen electrical lines. Stay at least 10 feet (3 meters) away from overhead wires during cleanup and other activities. If working at heights or handling long objects, survey the area before starting work for the presence of overhead wires.

How Power Is Restored

When the power goes out, all of our efforts are focused on restoring your service as safely and as quickly as possible. During large disruptions, we work to restore power by feeder priority, making sure places like hospitals can stay open before we begin work in other areas.

Step 1
First, we ensure everything is operational at our Generation Plant, substations and on the transmission lines leaving from our plants to the substations that deliver power.

Step 2
We then restore power to emergency services such as GB Utility Water well fields, Police & Fire Stations, and Hospitals.

Step 3
Essential community business and facilities such as Food Stores, Gas Stations and Schools are then energized.

Step 4
Once all safety assessments have been completed, our fleet disperses to your neighborhoods to restore power. We attempt to restore areas that are densely populated so as to energize the most customers at once.

Contact Us

(242) 352-8411 or 300-4826
Contact us online

Be sure to update your account for outage notifications before, during and after a major storm.