(Left) Prime Minister Mia Mottley seen here during the press conference with Managing Director of BL&P Roger Blackman.

(Left) Prime Minister Mia Mottley seen here during the press conference with Managing Director of BL&P Roger Blackman.

BL&P to spend 4 million dollars to rent temporary equipment

All hands are currently on deck, with the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, promising that the current power supply crisis currently plaguing the nation, is being treated with the utmost of seriousness.

During a late meeting with all relevant stakeholders from the Barbados Light and Power Company (BL&P), its parent company Emera Caribbean, as well as Emera Canada and others, The Prime Minister revealed that meetings with all parties have been ongoing since yesterday, with the aim of these talks being to find worthwhile solutions to the current issues, rather than investigating which institution is to take the blame.

“Our objective is to be able to ensure the integrity of the system going forward. Against that background, we have asked the BL&P about the additional crews that will be brought into the island, as well as the additional equipment that is being procured via rental and in addition to that, the decision to not pass on the cost of the rentals to the people of the country,” she said.

Managing Director of the company, Roger Blackman, revealed that teams have continued in their work during the course of the day, to not only bring 100% of the power back into the grid, but to also bring additional generating capacity online to sure up power reserves. In the battle against the clock to avoid a similar situation occurring in the future, the BL&P has already ordered an additional generating unit, which will be able to go online in the first week of December.

“Items we would have worked on today, would have been in relation to immediate relief via rental generation; 12 megawatts of rental generation are to be delivered to the island by December 5th, we will cover those costs when it comes to renting and installation of the system. We are also evaluating additional rental options, which some proposals we received today, that are currently being evaluated - which could be installed in a short time frame as well,” Blackman said.

The long term solution of an energy bridge, which will be a 33 megawatt plant, is to be installed at Trents St. Lucy, has been fast tracked and is currently in plans to be completed by summer of 2020.

“We had initially been talking to a supplier about a delivery in a 12 month timeframe, we are working to get that timeframe down to as short as possible, and right now we are looking at the middle of 2020, so around June. The rental generators will serve as the insurance backup during the period it will take to get that permanent solution in place,” he added.

The Inter-American Development Bank has also promised the government its assistance in evaluating any shortcomings that are currently present in the electric grid, with experts scheduled to be on the island from Thursday to begin their work.

Costs for the short term generators are estimated to cost around 4 million dollars, with the cost outlook on the future energy bridge to range in the 100 million dollar region.

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