NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Bahamas Power and Light Company Limited (BPL) has announced that following a rigorous selection process that involved the Ministry of Finance and the Inter-American Development Bank, Finnish energy conglomerate Wӓrtsilӓ has been selected to provide engineering/procurement/construction (EPC) services and commissioning of a battery energy storage system (BESS) for BPL’s Blue Hills Power Station (BHPS).
In a statement, BPL said the BESS facility will provide spinning reserve and inject a new level of resilience and smartness into the existing Nassau grid.
Work is scheduled to start approximately two months from the contract signing, with the target completion time set for 351 days after contract signing — July 2022.
BPL CEO Whitney Heastie said: “Wӓrtsilӓ won the bid with a solution that will greatly assist BPL in the process of improving system reliability and service quality on Nassau. In addition, we believe this BESS solution will assist as we work to continue our reduction of operational costs on the island.”
Heastie added: “We have worked hard to improve reliability and the quality of our electricity service, and we expect that our customers — who have seen their bills go down even as reliability is increasing — will derive the most benefit from this arrangement.”
The CEO thanked the Ministry of Finance for making the loan facility available.
“Without the inclusion of the BESS project as part of the Reconstruction with Resilience in the Energy Sector in The Bahamas Program, we would not be at this major milestone nor have the immediate funding that’s going to yield the implementation of this vital system,” he said.
“Additionally, without this funding, this game-changing technology would have been delayed until BPL could have taken on more debt.”
Wärtsilä has assured that in addition to aiding in reducing fuel consumption by providing spinning reserves and maximizing power output from Clifton Pier Power Station (CPPS), the BESS would allow future integration of renewable energy sources.
BPL Board Chair Dr Donovan Moxey added: “BPL is excited about launching distributed battery energy storage system in New Providence. BESS will complement and supplement BPL’s primary generation systems by helping the company respond to voltage spikes and sags, and as an alternative to generators to provide uninterrupted power supply during outages of other sources.
“BESS can work with decentralized or central systems, and has a plethora of other ancillary benefits, including, most notably, utilizing or distributing renewable energy such as from wind or solar systems, which will become increasingly important as BPL works more and more solar generation into its mix.”
Spinning reserve
On the matter of spinning reserve, BPL said it is of primary importance to understand that in the event of a contingency such as the sudden, unexpected loss of a generator, the energy storage system (ESS) will respond within milliseconds to discharge 25MW into the power grid for total duration of at least 30 minutes. Before, during and following such a discharge, the BESS will continue to provide all other requirements to full stated capability.
The benefits of ESS providing spinning reserve are:
- Grid stability.
- Decreased fuel consumption.
- Reduced emissions.
- Decreased runtime hours of engines.
- Additional capacity.
- O&M savings.
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