hightemperatures

For most Bahamians, Tuesday was the first time they had ever seen Dareo McKenzie.

Three months into his tenure as chief executive officer of Bahamas Grid Company (BGC), he stepped before the national media as the country grappled with repeated blackouts, growing public frustration and questions about the reliability of the electricity system.

It was an opportunity to introduce himself, inspire confidence and explain how BGC intends to improve the country’s ageing grid.

Instead, many people left talking about beaches and electric vehicle chargers.

As New Providence endured sweltering temperatures and recurring outages, McKenzie appealed to residents to reduce electricity consumption during peak hours.

“We have a very beautiful island,” he said.

“Constant breeze. Sometimes it may not be a bad thing. I know I do it. I go out and I sit on the beach and enjoy what this beautiful island has to offer.”

He also urged consumers to report major new electrical loads, including electric vehicle chargers, warning that unreported connections place additional strain on the grid.

From an engineering perspective, encouraging energy conservation during peak demand is standard practice around the world. Utilities routinely ask consumers to shift heavy electricity use away from peak periods to help stabilize the network.

The problem was not necessarily the advice, but perhaps the timing.

Many Bahamians had spent days without reliable electricity. Some had slept in uncomfortable homes, thrown away spoiled food or watched businesses struggle through repeated outages during high temperatures.

Against that backdrop, telling residents to enjoy the beach and reduce their own electricity use was always likely to be received as tone-deaf.

The public conversation quickly shifted away from McKenzie’s technical message and toward what many perceived as a failure to appreciate the scale of public frustration.

His comments about electric vehicle chargers generated similar skepticism.

Some questioned whether EVs represent a significant enough share of electricity demand to justify being highlighted at a moment when the public wanted answers about ageing infrastructure, transformers, substations and feeder failures.

Fairly or unfairly, the impression left was that consumers were once again being asked to shoulder part of the responsibility for a system they believe has failed them.

That is an unfortunate start for a chief executive who is, in many ways, beginning with a clean slate.

McKenzie assumed leadership after Bahamas Grid Company transitioned to a fully Bahamian-led operating model following the departure of Island Grid’s management team earlier this year.

He inherited not only the responsibility of operating the country’s transmission and distribution network, but also the challenge of rebuilding public confidence in an electricity system that has become synonymous with disruption.

That confidence will not be rebuilt through technical explanations alone, but through communication that meets people where they are.

These are moments of national frustration, and his leadership is being judged as much by empathy as by expertise.

Bahamians wanted to hear how outages would become less frequent, how long repairs would take and what measurable improvements they should expect.

Instead, much of the public conversation focused on beaches and EV chargers.

First impressions are important.

School is back in session but teachers are worrying about one more thing besides lesson planning: hot classrooms with no air conditioning which makes teaching and learning near impossible.

Teachers took to social media to vent their frustrations and to plead for fans to cool their sweltering classrooms.

A teacher at Huntley Christie High School in North Andros, Antoine Duncombe said, “Ain’t no way learning can take place. The sun just feels like it’s sitting on earth this time around. These classrooms are hotter than before with two or three working ceiling fans, out of the six.

“This is not conditions teachers and students should have to bare…Please donate three fans for my classroom… We burning up and I out here dressed up daily in shirt and tie.”

Many classrooms in public schools hold approximately 30 students, making it difficult for natural air to blow through the room. And, many classrooms have only ceiling fans which may be inoperable.

It is common for some teachers to purchase fans, but they do nothing to beat the intolerable heat.

A teacher at C.H. Reeves Junior High in New Providence D’Metria Smith begged for assistance from social media users.  “This heat is criminal. Please donate four fans to my classroom.”

In another post, she implored again, “I need four fans please,” as Sharell Edwards of Anatol Rodgers High School solicited an air conditioning unit because “the heat is vicious.”

Cameron Hanna, a teacher in Grand Bahama, described his classroom as “a sauna.”

Classrooms are becoming hotter as global temperatures rise, which can have a dire effect on learning. Summer months are particularly hotter with daytime temperatures reaching about 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

A teacher at Eight Mile Rock High School in Grand Bahama, Prisca Hunt, asked, “Dear Mr Prime Minister, how are we teachers supposed to go the extra mile you requested of us in these scorching, inferno, sauna-degrees classrooms?”

And Canovia Ferguson requested that the government “provide comfortable classrooms for our students–classrooms in which our students can concentrate on what the teacher is saying rather than fighting to sit in front of one of the two fans in the class which was purchased by the teacher by the way.”

Some social media users responded favorably, pledging to donate fans to teachers.

The weather seems to be hotter than in past summers and government may have to consider a new type of cooling unit to ensure comfortable classrooms for learning to take place.