More soot events in July & August than previous six months; BELCO cites environmental causes alongside maintenance
BELCO’s neighbours were hit with more soot fallout in July and August than the previous six months combined.
In a letter to neighbours and stakeholders, BELCO President Wayne Caines acknowledged that fallout events “rose significantly, with complaints nearly doubling the number of events.”
He shared a record of soot events in 2025, with 19 such incidents from January to June – an average of just over 3 per month.
However, there were 21 soot events through July and August, an average of 10.5 per month for that period.
Recorded events then fell again for September and October.
Mr Caines cited a number of “challenging conditions” that contributed to the summer increase, including unfavourable wind patterns, heightened maintenance activity, and engines being returned to service following ‘trip-outs’.
He added that engine restarts after outages carry an elevated risk of soot fall out that they are working to minimize.
“We have been implementing a number of targeted interventions to reduce emissions”, Mr Caines said. Such efforts include vacuum-cleaning sections of the exhaust flue after maintenance, and increased monitoring during maintenance or strong winds.
Mr Caines adds that “these measures are already delivering improvements, and we will continue to invest in approaches that reduce fall out and provide relief to the neighbourhood.”
“While some environmental factors particularly wind and seasonal patterns are outside our control, we are taking every reasonable step to reduce the impact of our operations on the community.”
These comments from Mr Caines follow criticism from area MP Jason Hayward this summer, who called on BELCO to speed-up the implementation of long-term solutions.
Soot fallout and emissions have been an ongoing issue since the BELCO’s North Power Station came online in April 2020.
Mr Caines previously stated that the new engines were “optimised” for liquid natural gas – a fuel that was prohibited by the Regulatory Authority in the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan.
BELCO submitted its proposal for the next IRP last year, including some scenarios with LNG.
During the subsequent public consultation, the RA reports that 24 out or 42 responses explicitly opposed LNG, and that some respondents felt renewable technologies weren’t being considered enough.
The RA reopened public consultation on alternative power generation this summer, closing on September 17th.
The next Integrated Resource Plan is still pending.
Meanwhile, BELCO President Wayne Caines sent a subsequent response to this summer’s soot fallout, affirming their commitment to reducing operational impact on properties that neighbour the power plant.
“We are committed to transparency”, he said, “and maintain regular communication with affected residents.”
“We’re focused on continuous improvement to minimise community impacts while maintaining reliable electricity supply for Bermuda.”
Full response from Wayne Caines, BELCO President:
“BELCO remains committed to reducing our operational impact on properties that neighbour our industrial plant and appreciates the community’s patience as we work through this challenge.
Our mitigation efforts are ongoing and multi-faceted. Since the commissioning of the North Power Station we have consistently been making operational changes that have minimised our impact on the surrounding community.
We are committed to transparency and maintain regular communication with affected residents. We have shared information with our neighbours and listened to their concerns through letters, emails, home visits, and open town halls—most recently last month.
Operating a power station inherently involves managing various environmental factors. We’re focused on continuous improvement to minimise community impacts while maintaining reliable electricity supply for Bermuda.”
