Halifax Media Co-op writes:
Two weeks ago, two gentlemen from the Bahamas came to Halifax,
looking for answers from Emera. Troy Garvey and Jonathan Glinton
represent Operation Justice Bahamas, and they have their sights set on
taking the home-grown power monster to court back on the island. Set
sail for corporate misadventures as we embark upon...The Emera
Connection.
One of Emera's most recent procurements is the Grand Bahamas Power
Company, of which they maintain an 80% ownership, as of December 2010.
The regulatory situation in Grand Bahama is unique, and lends itself
well to corporate pirates that make Captain Morgan look more like
Captain Kangaroo. However, to fully understand the sneaky details behind
Emera's current plum deal, we'll need to take a step back in history.
In 1955, Virginian lumber man Wallace Groves, an original Wall Street
bankster from the '20s, signed an agreement with the Government of
Bahamas, known as the Hawksbill Creek Agreement (HCA). Originally
intended to allow Groves access to timber on the north end of the island
of Grand Bahama, HCA turned a 200km stretch of pristine Caribbean real
estate into a “free-trade zone”. Groves logged, but he also built an
industrial, free-trade, empire, established Freeport, the second-largest
in the Bahamas, and created The Grand Bahamas Port Authority (GBPA).
Groves passed away in 1988, but the veritable kingdom he established
in Grand Bahama lives on to this day through the GBPA. The GBPA
continues to hold licencing responsibilities for industrial and
commercial enterprises. It develops all manner of infrastructure,
and runs the airport, the casinos, and tourist development projects.
With a finger in every pie, the Port Authority is the corporation that
governs outright; a frightening beast indeed. In the early 1990s, they
sold interests in Grand Bahamas Power Company, which Emera acquired a
controlling interest in, in 2010.
The nuts and bolts of the Grand Bahamas Power Company is that it has a
generating capacity of 137.5 MW, and serves approximately 20,000
customers. The vast majority of the Power Company's generators run on
low-grade oil, known as “bunker C”. For comparison's sake, the Lingan
Power Plant in Cape Breton, Emera's “Old Nelly”, has a generating
capacity of 600 MW.
The Power Company outfit isn't new, and brownouts and power outages
on Grand Bahama weren't unknown before Emera went south. But according
to Obie Wilchcombe, MP for West End and Bimini, power outages on Grand
Bahama have never been this constant or lengthy.
Read MORE HERE
(Halifax Media Co-op PHOTO: Troy Garvey Interviews Local NSPI Customer. Miles Howe
