The Ministry of Public Works, Utilities, Transport and Posts, which last year contracted a Texas-based company, MAN B&W to assist it in the improvement of the efficiency and reliability of the electricity generating plant at Needsmust informed Cabinet that many of the generating engines have had their full generating capacity restored and the efficiency of the electricity generation has moved from 17.11Kwh per gallon to 18.3Kwh per gallon over the period of the last nine months.

This will translate into a EC$306,000 saving per month for the Electricity Department, engineers and officials informed the Cabinet on Monday during the regular meeting presided over by Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas.

Cabinet, which spent a major part of its time discussing the ESIP.

Cabinet received a full update from the Ministry of Public Works, Utilities, Transport and Posts on the Electricity Supply Improvement Project. The project is designed to improve the quality of electricity services offered by the Department of Electricity and the Cabinet was pleased to learn that the programme of the modernization of the Electricity facilities was progressing smoothly.

"Other work done under the contract with MAN B&W included the training of engineers so that their diagnostic skills could be enhanced to help reduce down time and outages in electricity supply," Minister of State with responsibility for Information, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty said in the post cabinet statement.~~adz:Right~~

He said that fault localisation has also been implemented so that electrical outages could be restricted to very small locales thereby affecting a much smaller number of people and businesses.

"The Dept reported that low voltage problems in the main have been corrected and any outstanding low voltage issues will be easily corrected as the necessary equipment has now been installed. The replacement of mechanical parts with electronic parts at the main generating station has been completed and this means that electrical problems occurring as a result of the downing of electrical wires will have less impact on electrical supply throughout the country,"

said Sen. Carty, who also disclosed that "power could now be routed in two directions around the country, instead of one, because of built-in redundancy. This makes the electricity grid much more robust and protected."

He also disclosed that the Cabinet has agreed to extend the contract of MAN B&W so that further critical upgrades to the electricity infrastructure can be done.

"Under this one year contract, engineers and their staff at the Electricity Department will receive further training so as to handle a range of operational situations that may emerge at the generating plant in the future," said Minister Carty.

Cabinet was informed that computerised equipment will be installed to enable real-time monitoring of the generating equipment. This will be useful in helping engineers to foresee problems and thereby avoid or avert potential breakdowns at the plant.

Detailed manuals and operational procedures will be developed and will be used for the professional management of the generating equipment and the entire generating plant.