Belco intends to invest $45 million on two new engines over the next 22 months, president and CEO Garry Madeiros said yesterday.

The investment comes on top of the $21.2 million the company spends annually on plant and equipment, the Belco chief said, based on numbers from investments over the last nine years.

The utilities giant yesterday issued its quarterly report and a letter to shareholders detailing the considerable efforts of its employees to restore power to 25,000 customers following Hurricane Fabian on September 5.

While Mr. Madeiros flat out declared Belco will not pursue an Island-wide underground cabling programme (see story on Page 1), he took the opportunity to highlight the major investments the company is tackling.

"Much is expected of Belco, and we enjoy the challenge of meeting those expectations, but we have to be realistic," Mr. Madeiros told shareholders. "We already invest $21.2 million annually in plant and equipment, based on the last nine years.

"No other local organisation comes anywhere close to that level of local investment."

Mr. Madeiros outlined for shareholders, the company's extensive efforts to prepare for, and deal with, the Category 3 hurricane, as well as methods used to apprise the public of restoration progress.

Belco started with a plans to deal with a "worst case scenario", he said.

"This included lining up a number of US utilities and overseas contractors willing to come to Bermuda should we need them, as well as preliminary arrangements for a military transport plane with trucks, supplies and manpower should it be required."

While the storm aftermath did not require the American support action, 41 CARILEC linemen from utilities in Cayman, Barbados, Belize, Bahamas, Dominica and Jamaica did fly in to assist Belco crews and a charter flight was brought in from Florida carrying supplies.

"As damage to our system was not as extensive as we had feared, we did not require completing arrangements for significant US support," Mr. Madeiros said.

"Within 72 hours electricity service was restored to 60 percent of those who lost it during Fabian....

"Our overhead line crews, underground crews, engineers and support staff worked tirelessly, averaging between 14 and 17 hours per day.

"...Those who were not on the front line were running a large back-room machine to support the requirements of the 250-300 staff, contractors and Bermuda Regiment working out in the field.

"Two weeks into the restoration efforts 23,800 of the 25,000 customers who lost power during the hurricane had power restored, leaving approximately 1,200 still without electricity."

While Hurricane Fabian hit harder and longer than the last major hurricane, Emily in 1987, Mr. Madeiros said Belco met its goal of re-establishing power to all customers within three weeks.

This achievement coincided with the anniversary of Emily on September 25, 2003, he noted.

And, the company was able to keep the public better informed during Fabian due to its new Operations Centre's Outage Management System, he said.

"We attempted to provide customers with a 72-hour restoration forecast, but reduced the forecast projection to one and two days as future projections were based on the previous day's restoration results making projections three days in advance, difficult," Mr. Madeiros said.

Belco's board of directors also yesterday issued a dividend of 38.5 cents per share for the third quarter of 2003. As of September 25, the market price per share was $34.