Belco’s president has written to neighbours of the Pembroke plant to explain why they may have experienced an increase in soot fallout on their property during summer months.

Wayne Caines, in a letter dated last Friday seen by The Royal Gazette, said that although October had shown a relatively low number of incidents, in July and August the number of fallout events and complaints from nearby residents “rose significantly” owing to a combination of factors.

He released figures showing that July came with eight fallout cases and 15 complaints, while August recorded 13 fallout events and 23 complaints.

It stood out in comparison with much smaller figures for the rest of 2025 — fallout events outside of July and August this year numbered five and under, while the highest number of complaints was seven.

Mr Caines said the factors contributing to the problem this summer included unfavourable wind patterns, heightened maintenance activity, a number of engine trip-outs and the way in which engines were restarted.

He also outlined a number of “targeted interventions” designed to address the continuing problems including vacuum-cleaning the interior of smoke stacks, operational adjustments, increased monitoring and “a continuing technical review”.

Mr Caines said: “We have been implementing a number of targeted interventions to reduce emissions and mitigate fallout during both normal operations and maintenance periods.

“These measures are already delivering improvements, and we will continue to invest in approaches that reduce fallout and provide relief to the neighbourhood.”

Neighbours of Belco including residences, schools and businesses have experienced soot fallout from the plant for several years, not least since the commissioning of the North Power Station in 2020.

The station’s dual-fuel engines were optimised to run on liquefied natural gas, a fuel that was never approved, and heavy fuel oil.

Instead they had to burn heavy fuel oil only, when LNG was rejected by the Regulatory Authority in the island’s first Integrated Resource Plan — a scenario previously cited by Mr Caines for problems at the power station.

Detailing the issues this summer, Mr Caines’s letter described stronger-than-normal winds from the south and southwest blowing towards the neighbourhood. He also said that there had been heightened maintenance activity, including engine services.

He added that there had been engine trip-outs, which required rapid return to service, “increasing the likelihood of soot release during restarts”.

He said it was “the nature of engine restarts after outages, which carries an elevated risk of fallout — a risk we are actively working to minimise”.

Mr Caines said efforts to mitigate the problems included vacuum-cleaning sections of the exhaust flue after maintenance to remove residual soot before engines are restarted, as well as operational adjustments designed to reduce soot release during the starting and shutdown of engines.

He said there had been increased “monitoring and process improvements” focused on high-risk periods such as maintenance cycles and strong prevailing winds, as well as a “continuing technical review aimed at strengthening plant performance and limiting community impact”.

The Royal Gazette asked Belco how the mitigation measures had improved the situation and whether the company was disappointed that after spending several years and millions of dollars of investment to implement them, the problem of soot continued.

Mr Caines replied: “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 multifaceted. 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, e-mails, 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.”