NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) yesterday announced Station A at the Clifton Pier Power Station is online and providing power to the grid.
The company underscored the milestone meets the December 15 deadline it set with Wӓrtsilӓ in a press release yesterday.
“The $95M, 130 megawatt (MW) power plant features seven state-of-the-art Wӓrtsilӓ 50DF tri-fuel engines, each of which has been tested and commissioned over the past few weeks and each of which has already been tested at full load on the BPL power grid,” BPL said.
“Engines will be staggered onto the grid over the coming weeks in order to space out maintenance cycles.
It continued: “The power plant coming online means 130MW of high-efficiency, lower-cost power that becomes the replacement baseload generation for BPL New Providence operations, and leapfrogs the company into the forefront of power generation technology.
BPL Chairman Dr. Donovan Moxey noted the company’s strategic turnaround plan is bringing an end to load-shedding.
“We are excited to usher in a new age of reliable energy production at BPL, and the first phase of lowering our fuel costs and bringing Bahamians the reliable, affordable and safe power they deserve,” Moxey said.
BPL CEO Whitney Heastie said, “This is a critical accomplishment for us. We have been working miracles to keep a severely debilitated generation fleet online, plagued by old machines that have – for various reasons – not been maintained as well as they could have been, and also by a growing demand for electricity that has taxed our ability to supply.
“Now, with the replacement power out of Clifton Pier, we can shift our baseload generation – that is, the first power to the grid and the foundation of our power supply – to Station A, which means we’re burning cheaper, more efficient fuel with more reliable engines first.
“Our customers will see the difference,” Heastie added.
