~~Adz:Left~~ BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS (JULY 9, 2007) -- An engine design technician, who is Caterpillar-certified, updated the Electricity Department on Monday, about his preliminary inspections on the 12-year-old 4.4 megawatt Caterpillar generator, which failed last Wednesday.
The specialist was called in from Miami by the Electricity Department to assist with identifying whether any additional causes attributed to the recent shutdown, apart from a needed turbo charge cartridge, which is to be installed this week. On his first day at the power station, Miguel gave a preliminary update:
"We found some very minor defects; nothing to do with any workmanship of anybody involved [which] we're correcting right now. We are still waiting for a turbo charge cartridge to arrive from the US and we still have to do two big inspections on the coolers of the engine. Hopefully that will be completed by Saturday and have everything up and running."
The Electricity Department has received cooperation from the some of its large clients in the private sector who are helping to reduce demand for electricity during peak hours by using their standby generators. This cooperation is enabling the Department to provide 100% electricity supply throughout the island during the daytime when demand exceeds capacity until the two generators (the 13.9 megawatt Mirrlees and the 4.4 megawatt Caterpillar) are fully restored. Presently there are a handful of large customers who demand 2 megawatts of electricity during peak hours.
The Department also indicated that it continues to day-to-day issues "in the field"; these are problems that do not originate from the electricity generating plant but rather from transformers, sub-stations, and line distribution issues, which it [the Department] tries to tackle in a very expeditious manner.
Meanwhile, the commissioning of a new 4-megawatt generator is going well according to site supervisor for MAN Diesel Canada. "Installation's going well; we should be introducing fluids into the new engine probably by the end of the week. They [the MAN technicians] are doing the alignment process now, which is going along very smooth."
The commissioning of the new 4-megawatt generator will bring additional needed electricity to the power supply capacity. According to the MAN site supervisor electricity generated by the soon to be commissioned MAN Diesel generator is expected soon. Audio / Video Clip 3: "We're shooting for the end of July but we'll hold off 'til saying the first week of August."
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