By Bennette Roach
Towards the end of January this year, Montserrat Utilities Manager (MUL) Mr. Peter White confirmed that there were proposals before the Government, to the way forward as a result of the severe outages being experienced on island at the time
This week MUL reported that a refurbished caterpillar generator set is currently being installed. The generator is now installed and is being tested after being refitted to meet requirements, according to workmen at the Brades Power Station.
A ZJB report stated that “MUL Staff and caterpillar representatives have been working feverishly over the past three weeks to install the genset,” and also that “According to the Chief Engineer Kendall Lee, the generator set has a generating capacity of 1350 kilowatts and installation should be completed by mid-May.”
Mr Lee said caterpillar representatives from REMCO of Barbados, commissioned the generator set which arrived on island on April 8 and assisted with integrating it into the existing control system.
Accordingly, the aim of the project is to improve the installed capacity at Brades Power Station until the new medium speed diesel power station is commissioned and brought online in 2015.
DFID again rescued the situation and provided the funds, so that this installation of this high speed generator is expected to greatly reduce the likely hood of load shedding, of the kind experienced, towards the end of last year into January.
DFID aided GoM to launch a project of a new Generating engine and Plant on September 30, 2011. It must therefore be a source of embarrassment to GoM that the new $36 million power project power plant will not be in place before June of 2015, nearly four years after the project began, when the island had already been experiencing severe electricity outages. This is particularly so since it should not be too long after, the two megawatt geothermal electricity can be available, of course with the guarantee that there will be adequate back-ups.
At the launch in Sept 201, Dr. Kato Kimbugwe, DFID local rep, speaking about the increased power outages, which he said, can hinder Montserrat’s economic growth, cautioned: “….frequent power outages mean increased cost to households and businesses, in terms of equipment failure, but more importantly for businesses, a decline in productivity and significantly Montserrat become less attractive for investment at a critical time of its investment.”
