There have been rumours, some, the so-called pundits say, should be taken seriously because of the origin of the rumours or the reasons they developed in the first instance. These rumours will most likely have no place in these stories because their focus is to deal with the concerns that exist over the problems major projects are faced with and the obvious affects they do have on the economy.
Delays with MUL Power Station Expansion project create energy delivery problems
Among the delays that have been causing concern to the economic growth and development on Montserrat, is the Brades Power Station Expansion project.
On Friday, September 30, 2011, the Department for International Development (DFID), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and government of Montserrat announced the co-financing a EC$36 million power plant project that will pave the way for a transition to more renewable sources of energy.
Mr. Philip Chambers, the Permandent Secretary at the Ministry of Coms and Works, as Chairman of Montserrat Utilities Limited, said at the launch of the project, “Montserrat Utilities Limited (MUL) is currently operating on five unreliable high speed generating sets, which have very high fuel consumption and a very high maintenance cost.”
At the time he also noted, “the high operating cost is reflected in the cost of electricity to the consumers,” a much talked about topic on every corner and by every consumer in Montserrat.
Four months later, on February 3, 2012, MUL facilitated the opening of sealed bids for the construction of the Power Station Expansion project.
Two contracting companies entered sealed bids. They were, Williams Industries Incorporated and Little Bay Limited, LLC, through its joint venture partners Philadelphia Electrical Equipment Company (PEECO), Z&F Consulting and Annbar SA De CV ( Annbar Mexico).
Since then information provided said that there were problems with the bids and the tender would have to be redone. This was done one year later when request for tenders were advertised in February this year following the opening of the first two tenders.
In the presence of members of representatives of some of the various companies and the media, this time, six companies, including the previous two above, submitted tenders, which ranged from approximately US$5,500.00O0.00 to US$16,936,102.00. These other companies were: Angelies Industries Ltd., H.M. Goods and Services/ESI, Broadtown Ltd., Surrey Paving and Aggregate Ltd.
This opening took place on May 12, 2013 and like last year February, when MUL’s manager Peter White told us the procedure from then on the latest news we have is that because of another problem with the tenders, these were delayed and forwarded on to CDB for evaluation.
Ms. Allison Davis, Portfolio Manager of CDB
Last year the MUL manager said the next step would be the bid evaluation, collection of the winning bid and the awarding of the bid. “Our consultant Mott McDonald who designed the station itself and the specifications for the station, they would do the evaluation. Following that, we would decide who has the winning bid. The evaluation process takes quite a while, the engineers would have to go through it with a fine tooth comb, ensure that they meet all the specifications etc. within the bid, to ensure that they have not deviated considerably from the tender documents and the specifications, and also determine that the bidders are in fact qualified based on CDB’s criteria, then a decision would be made.”
Now we are informed that it would be another six weeks before any further announcements will be made.
The delays create much further discussion especially with the news that geothermal resource is available. At the beginning of the tender process the financiers of the project said, “it is hoped that it (the contract) will be awarded by the end of March 2012. CDB is estimating a Power Station Commissioning in June of 2014.
It must be safe to say that from August this year commissioning will not take place until September of 2016. So the question must be and the Montserrat Geothermal Power Company who will hold a press conference this week, plan to raise it, “What is the point of this great expense now, with geothermal in the offing, if all we will need is a back-up generating system.”
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