The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter 

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) executives yesterday said the building housing New Providence’s baseload generation capacity requires close to $3m in repairs to address deficiencies and prevent it from falling apart.

Anthony Christie, the utility’s director of generation and energy supply, during a media tour of Clifton Pier’s Station A, which is home to the seven Wartsila engines that can collectively supply 132 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity, said the vibrations they create when operating are causing spalling - pieces of concrete to fall from the roof and ceiling.

“In areas where we see spalling and we have some ceiling falling, we are putting up jacks and wood until we can have the structural team come in and do the repairs,” he added. Station A, a 40-plus year-old building, was retrofitted to house BPL’s $95m investment but only five of the seven engines are presently operational with two out of action for maintenance.

The planned structural repairs are expected to take place before year-end 2023 and cost less than $3m, Mr Christie said. The US engineering firm, Matergenics Inc, is conducting a structural assessment of Station A with BPL executives seemingly blaming Wartsila, whose contract to manage the facility ceased at year-end 2022, for many of the issues with the building and the engines. 

Repairs were described as an “ongoing issue” at Station A. “As a part of the contract (with Wartsila) it speaks to the plant being handed over back to us in the same state in which it was given. We did not encounter that. So since then we’ve been focusing on correcting a lot of these issues in order to get it in a better state,” Mr Christie said. 

Station A’s basement, which does not house the Wartsila engines, has structural damage to its walls and is full of sludge and oil. It was described as “not up to standard” with the pumping systems being inoperable, which made it a “main area of focus” for BPL so it can ensure staff safety in dealing with the excess sludge that is running off into the basement. Yellow tape is in place to warn workers to be careful, with the basement also said to be suffering from salt water corrosion.

“Then we would have looked at systems that were not working in the plant. Again, we would have had a running plant. Units would have been running. We would have had scheduled maintenance on at the time one unit was planned for service,” Mr Christie said. 

“Again, based upon demand, the prior years in these units you have a 12,000 hour service, then a 24,000 and a 36,000 [hour service]. Due to the demand at the time, a lot of the scheduled maintenance was delayed and that impacted us completing a lot of the maintenance on time. Now at the time, the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) Wartsila was in charge of that. 

“In addition, the scheduled maintenance that was done on five of the seven units had a lot of delays and challenges due to logistics and parts being available on time, technicians being available on time. All of this added to delays. So up until the time we took over they should have completed all of the services or overhauls, but at that time they did not. So we were left now responsible for two more overhauls that needed to be done prior to summer.” 

There are also “major defects” with regard to the Wartsila engines themselves. “We would have found bolts that snapped or broke. We’ve had more wear and tear on certain components in the crankcase that needed proper analysis in order to understand the root cause,” Mr Christie asserted. BPL has notified Wartsila of these issues and is preparing a report based on Wartsila’s additional findings with similar units deployed around the world. 

Mr Christie added: “Up until the time we took over the plant there was a lot of equipment that was not functioning. Some still aren’t. I talked about the ventilation in the building. We want to correct that, and that is something that’s going to be happening real soon. 

“We would have went through a very hot summer, and walking near the engine bays and near the doors, it was extremely hot and that impacts the generation output from the unit. So, in short order, we’re going to install a series of exhaust fans on the upper windows along the wall that would help with the ventilation in the building. 

“Another large component outside of fuel was the air supply, which is provided by compressors that are part of the engine operations. By design, they put those in the building and they found out that they were too hot to operate properly in the building. So they had to put them on the outside of the building.” The compressors were placed in an “ad hoc” position and BPL is trying to rectify that situation as well. 

The Wartsila engines were designed to optimise use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) and use less of the more expensive automated diesel oil (ADO), so as to minimise fuel costs for consumers. This requires steam for the pre-treatment of the oil, which allows it to flow at the right consistency for the engines.

However, Mr Christie said Wartsila decided not to install a full-sized boiler for Station A but decided to use the existing separation and fuelling system at Stations B and C. He said “it became a challenge” for BPL to keep up with the HFO needs for the seven Wartsila units.

“So, as an addition afterwards, they decided to install two standalone boilers to help support the steam needed for the plant and production of HFO in order to run all the units on HFO. And, again, this plant was designed, the engines were built, to run on HFO primarily,” he added.

“HFO is the cheapest fuel that we have available in The Bahamas right now to produce electricity. That was a key point, and having that as part of the design for this plant. However, the original concept was to use systems that existed in order to save time and costs from Station’s B and C.

“We found that out to be a challenge in keeping up with the amount of production needed for this larger size plant in addition to our existing plant. So, that was a part of some of our challenges; the steam in production in order to produce sufficient HFO to achieve the lowest costs in production.”