Chairman of the Board of Directors of BVI Electricity Corporation Ron R. Potter speaking at the ceremony on Monday March 23, 2015. Photo: VINO

A section of the audience at the sod turning ceremony on Monday March 23, 2015. Photo: VINO

Members of the House of Assembly in attendance. From right are Leader of the Opposition Hon Ralph T. O'Neal OBE (R9), Hon Archibald C. Christian, Hon Marlon A. Penn (R8) and Hon Alvera Maduro-Caines (R6). Photo: VINO

Members of the Board and management of the BVIEC, Minister for Communications and Works Hon Mark H. Vanterpool (R4) and Premier Dr the Hon D. Orlando Smith about to turn the sod for the commencement of Phase 5. Photo: VINO

Potter made these remarks during the sod turning ceremony for the BVIEC's Phase 5 Development Programme on Monday March 23, 2015 at the Pockwood Pond Power Station.

He said that under the Phase 5 expansion plan, the Corporation will expand the Pockwood Pond Power Station to accommodate four additional generators; in the first instance two generators producing 16 megawatts of power would be installed and “in our contract with Wartsila we have the option to buy another 8 megawatt generator in the near future.”

He said the Corporation will be installing two interconnection cables between Pockwood Pond and Long Bush to provide additional capacity and redundancy. “We will also add a new control room and a new cooling system for the generator and a number of other things,” he said.

Limited capacity greatest challenge

Potter said the greatest challenge that the Corporation is faced with is that when existing generators are taken off for service there is limited capacity to replace them “so we incur the occasional blackout or load-shedding.”

He said that for peak demand of 34 megawatts the Corporation needs approximately 45 megawatts of capacity. “We only have 39 [megawatts] and of that 39, 6 of it should have been retired already and 11 is to be shortly retired,” he said.

“Phase 5 will allow us to get the spare capacity in place and allow us to retire our older equipment in one piece rather than in several pieces,” he said.

Potter noted that in order to provide reliable power, generation is but one aspect. “Once we generate it we have to be able to transmit it and distribute it to customers thus we need a reliable grid. Our national grid faces two challenges: it is capacity constrained between Pockwood Pond where the power is generated and Long Bush where the majority of the power has to travel to and is used,” he said.

Line failures mean load-shedding

Potter said the Corporation has two lines capable of carrying 20 megawatts of power each. “28 megawatts is generated here at Pockwood Pond, so if we have a failure on one line there will be load-shedding. Like our generation assets our national grid is ageing. In 2014 we had the failure of a distribution line in Jos van Dyke and a transmission line to Virgin Gorda,” he said.

He added while the lights were kept on in Virgin Gorda, there was no redundancy to keep power on in Jost van Dyke hence there were blackouts. “I thank the people in Jost van Dyke for bearing with us as we did what was necessary to address the issues,” he said.

“Phase 5 will allow us to get the spare transmission capacity in place,” he said.