With fuel prices soaring on the international market, Bahamas Electrical Corporation officials say they are taking measures to ease the burden of high fuel costs locally.
BEC officials signed an agreement on Thursday with Hitachi America for a $12 million Hitachi H-25 gas turbine generator which is expected to help decrease the amount of gas used and eventually result in cheaper electricity bills for BEC customers.
The gas turbine will be installed at the Blue Hill power plant. However, due to the length of time and expertise needed to have the turbine up and running, it will not be ready for commercial operation until the third quarter of 2007, officials said.
Corporation Chairman Keith Major said at a press conference at BEC headquarters on Blue Hill Road yesterday that this modern equipment will benefit the company in the long run.
“With the ever increasing demand for electricity in The Bahamas and in particular New Providence and Paradise Island, BEC is compelled to install generating plant at both our Blue Hill and Clifton Pier power stations,” Mr. Major said.
“To this end, the corporation is continuing with its modernization plan at the Blue Hill power station to replace the old and inefficient gas turbines with modern and more efficient technology.”
According to Mr. Major, the gas turbine generator is the most efficient in its category.
The corporation has invested in a total of four turbine generators so far.
The new gas turbine generator will replace the existing gas turbine unit, GT-9, which has been retired.
The new turbine is expected to enhance the performance in output and efficiency in electricity.
“This unit in comparison to the old unit will produce power at a lower cost,” Mr. Major said.
Kevin Basden, BEC general manager, added, “This is yet another step taken by the corporation as we continue to provide electricity. We have upgraded our facilities not only to reduce the overall cost, but also to improve our reliability.”
In addition to providing new technology for New Providence, Mr. Basden said corporation officials plan to upgrade equipment on the Family Islands.
“We are looking at improving Exuma with additional generator capacity [as well as] Bimini, Eleuthera and Cat Island and Andros. There is a need for us to continue to upgrade plants because some of them were established many years ago and have already outgrown [their] life span,” Mr. Basden explained.
Officials expect that the new turbine generator will also decrease the amount of power outages in New Providence.
“This unit is replacing older equipment that is problematic and therefore it should bring great relief in reducing power outages,” Mr. Basden said.
Hitachiﾒs executive vice president and general manager, Kiyoshi Kinugawa, assured BEC officials at the signing that the turbine generator is one of the best energy conservation gas turbine in the world.
By: Bianca Symonette, The Bahama Journal
