PowerGen gets another 15 years

PowerGen’s 1994 power purchase agreement with the Trinidad and Tobago Government will be renewed for another 15 years to provide additional electricity. Starting from June 30, the company will provide 742 megawatts to T&TEC, which will be reduced to 624 megawatts once the Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU) plant at La Brea is up and running.

The Government is expected to save $10 million a month under this arrangement. This was stated yesterday by acting general manager of T&TEC Kelvin Ramsook. He said Cabinet has approved land in Gandhi Village, La Brea, for the construction of an electrical substation.

Ramsook said the new substation will boost the distribution of electricity from the TGU plant, also in La Brea, which was initially being built to provide power to a proposed smelter plant which has been shelved. The substation is expected to be completed by October next year.

The 720-megawatt capacity facility, which currently only generates 300 megawatts, will need additional transmission lines to optimise full use of the TGU plant capacity, which could take approximately two and a half years to complete. This entire project will take approximately four years.

Ramsook was speaking at a ceremony to present letters of appointment to Sushilla Ramkissoon-Mark as the new chairman of T&TEC. Kenneth Patino was also officially appointed deputy chairman. The ceremony, presided over by Minister of Public Utilities Emmanuel George, took place in his office at Elizabeth Street, St Clair.  

Ramsook said the Government also plans to introduce combined-cycle power generation, which will result in greater efficiency, since less fuel will be used. He also explained the renewal of PowerGen’s agreement. Ramsook said it had been ascertained that by 2018 there would be a need for greater power-generating capacity. This will be compounded by the fact that by 2014 the Port-of-Spain power station will be shut down.

“You don’t want to have too much generation in the system, because you have to pay for it, and if someone is putting up a power station, you have no choice, you have to pay for it,” Ramsook said. “And you don’t want to have capacity sitting there idle and you have no customers. Trinidad is in a fortunate position with the kind of generation we have now and the capacity is ideal. The total capacity is 2,325 megawatts.”

Meanwhile, Ramkissoon-Mark said on the top of her list of priorities is the health and safety of T&TEC workers. “My vision is to create a much safer working environment as well as a more financially viable organisation,” she said. “As you know, we have had a few fatalities within the recent past, and certainly one of the initiatives that this board will be focusing on is institutional strengthening, particularly as it relates to the area of HSE (Health and Safety) practice and procedure.

So safety is a priority for us. It is of immediate priority.” Ramkissoon-Mark, who was the deputy chairman of T&TEC before Omar Khan resigned as chairman last month, plans to introduce changes to minimise accidents which have resulted in the deaths of T&TEC linesmen.