Needs Must Power Station – St. Kitts Electricity Department
Photo By Erasmus Williams
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
October 18, 2009 (CUOPM)
Another step towards a more reliable electricity service for consumers on St. Kitts.
Operations Engineer, Generation Division at the Needsmust Power Plant, Mr. C. Jomo Williams said the procedure to tie in the auxiliary panel for the new 4 mega watt Holeby engine at the Needsmust Power Station took place early Sunday morning.
He said the procedure called for the total shut down of the power plant to safely install the necessary equipment.
“The outage was a planned and controlled one, and commenced at 04:30, and was successfully completed shortly after 07:00,” said Mr. Williams.
He said that in the interest of security, it was decided by management not to announce the outage and expressed regret for the inconvenience that the interruption in supply of electricity caused.
Mr. Williams told the Communications Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister (CUOPM), that all the radiator fans, lubricating pumps, fuel pumps to run the main engine were connected.
“The next phase is completing of the pipes for the fuel, water, air, oil and lubricants for the starting up of the new Holeby engine and putting it on the national grid,” said Mr. Williams.
When the new MAN 4.0MW Holeby engine comes on stream, it will bring the capacity to 28.6MW.
Currently, the peak demand for the nation is 24.5MW, which can be covered by the system in its current configuration, without reserve.