30 June 2026
URCA Fines BPL for Major Outage Reporting Breaches
The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA) has issued two Final Determinations and Orders finding that Bahamas Power and Light Company Ltd. (BPL) breached Condition 24.5 of its Public Electricity Supplier Licence by failing to report major electricity outages to URCA within the required period.
Both Final Determinations and Orders were issued on 16 June 2026.
Under its licence, BPL is required to notify URCA within 24 hours of any major outage and provide key information, including the cause of the outage, the areas affected, the number of customers impacted, the restoration efforts undertaken, and the time taken to restore service.
Timely reporting is critical to enabling URCA to monitor service reliability, oversee restoration efforts where necessary, and discharge its consumer protection responsibilities.
The first determination relates to a series of major outages affecting Abaco and the Abaco Cays between 30 November and 15 December 2025. URCA found that BPL failed to submit the required reports within the prescribed period, with reports instead being submitted between 18 December and 21 December 2025, resulting in reporting delays ranging from 2 to 21 days. As a result, URCA imposed a regulatory fine of $20,000.
The second determination concerns a major outage on Crooked Island on 21 October 2025. URCA became aware of the outage through public sources after not receiving the required report from BPL. Following an inquiry by URCA, BPL submitted its Major Outage Report on 30 October 2025, nine days after the outage occurred. URCA determined that BPL had breached its reporting obligation and imposed a regulatory fine of $9,662.
Although URCA has imposed these fines, it determined that enforcement and collection of both penalties will be suspended for a period of 12 months. The suspension does not waive, reduce or cancel the fines. Rather, it provides BPL with an opportunity to demonstrate sustained compliance with its licence obligations. Should BPL commit any further breach of its major outage reporting obligations, fail to comply with the Orders, or fail to implement the required corrective measures during the suspension period, URCA may proceed with enforcement and collection of the fines.
These determinations reinforce the importance of compliance with licence conditions while providing BPL with a clear opportunity to strengthen its reporting processes and demonstrate future compliance.