Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) CEO Shevonn Cambridge explained yesterday what he meant when he told The Nassau Guardian earlier this week that former BPL officials "may have cut some corners" in getting the power company's Station A plant at Clifton Pier online, leading to BPL's inability to optimize use of the seven Wartsila engines that were secured to address the utility's long-standing woes.
Issues facing BPL have become somewhat of a political football with claims and counter claims from the government and official opposition over which administration is responsible for the company's challenges.
BPL has been pushed increasingly in the spotlight as higher fuel charges set in and consumers begin to feel the pinch as many experience substantial increases in their bills.
Cambridge outlined the history of the Wartsila engine acquisitions: BPL contracted Wartsila to supply 132MW of generation from seven engines following a catastrophic fire at Clifton Pier Power Station's Station C, which resulted in the immediate loss of 60 MW of generation capacity on September 7, 2018.
He said Wartsila's initial proposal included: gas-ready units, redundancies in the critical auxiliaries, and a separate closed-loop (radiator) cooling system.
"BPL decided to forego the engines' gas-ready capabilities, opted for shared auxiliaries and the use of an existing cooling water system at the site. These decisions along with the decision to house the engines of an already compromised Station A resulted in numerous deficiencies," Cambridge said.
He explained, "The use of a singular auxiliary system and the reuse of the old, already compromised borehole cooling system at the original Station A caused an appreciable decline in outputs from the engines.
"This could have been prevented with a closed-loop radiator cooling system as suggested in the original design proposal. The closed system would have allowed for more effective cooling to prevent engine overheating and facilitate higher engine outputs."
In accusing the Minnis administration of bad management in respect of BPL, Prime Minister Philip Davis, speaking in the House of Assembly recently, said "the smell is rotten" at BPL.
Davis said, "It was presented that those engines were tri fuel. If you look on BPL's website now, it is saying tri fuel, and we were understanding in the last week when we are doing things to correct what's going on, that it is not, which throws back the plans that we had in place."
Cambridge said yesterday the units were touted to operate optimally on 60 percent Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and 40 percent Automotive Diesel Oil (ADO).
He said, however, the units operated on 25 percent HFO and 75 percent ADO in calendar year 2020; 32 percent HFO and 68 percent ADO in 2021; and approximately 50 percent HFO and 50 percent ADO in 2022.
Cambridge explained, "The significance of this is that HFO is the cheaper fuel, so burning more ADO than budgeted means that the actual fuel cost exceeded the budgeted assumptions and ate into the potential savings.
"Boiler challenges resulted in poor heating of the HFO. The HFO used was too thick, which impacted the pretreatment, pump/transfer, and properly burning of it in the engines. This problem eventually manifested itself with premature wear of the engines' components, which resulted in the scheduled 24k hour overhauls having to be performed at the 12k hour interval.
"The overhaul for each unit was $957,000 or $6.7 million combined compared to the estimated $334,000 per unit or $2.3 million total for the seven units.
"This is triple the cost. It also resulted in additional unit downtime to procure additional parts. This downtime also extended the overhauls into the peak summer period."
Up to yesterday, two of the Wartsila engines were still undergoing maintenance.
Cambridge had previously said they were expected to be back online by the end of July.
Arnette Ingraham, who heads BPL's communications, said yesterday, "We anticipate getting them back soon."
She said the maintenance is lasting longer "due to the wear on the engines that requires additional parts that weren't anticipated."
When he spoke last week about BPL in the House of Assembly - a direct response to former Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis' criticisms - Davis said the Wartsila engines were "constructed in a dilapidated building".
"Therefore, they can't run for fear that the building will collapse on it," he said. "That's the findings. Never ran the engines. Never ran the seven engines put there."
Cambridge told The Nassau Guardian on Sunday that it is "too risky" to run all seven Wartsila engines at once because of the construction spalling of the building.
He further explained yesterday, "The units were also installed in the 40-plus-year-old Station A building, which was already showing signs of structural deterioration.
"The vibrations from all seven engines running simultaneously resulted in considerable spalling which posed a danger to employees and the risk of machine damage.
"Experts have concluded that a maximum of five engines can run simultaneously. Moreover, seven engines crammed into the space meant that overhauls had to be done offsite with transportation back and forth to Station A.
"The plant's outputs were measured at 560,500 MW hours in 2020. In 2021, 648,200 MW hours of electricity were produced and in 2022, 561,900 MW hours were produced. By industry standards, the seven engines should have been producing 740,000 MW hours annually."
Cambridge said, "BPL also entered an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Agreement with Wartsila which created operational and financial inefficiencies for BPL that negatively impacted the engines' availability, reliability, and overall performance at Station A."
At the end of last year, BPL ended its contract with Wartsila.
Asked last month what kind of impact ending Wartsila's contract had on BPL's operations, Cambridge said, "The only impact it has had is we've been able to save a lot of money by ending the arrangement with Wartsila.
"We were paying a premium for the OEM reps being here, but they were utilizing Bahamian staff; and so, we had people here with the skill set to carry it out, and so we took it over.
"It wasn't just about the money. It was also creating some operational challenges with the communications between them and our central control with dispatching load and what have you; and so, it was just some unnecessary complications. Operationally and financially, it just proved to be a better decision for us."
The BPL CEO said yesterday, "BPL is addressing deficiencies to ensure optimal performance from the Wartsila engines. The priorities are to replace the cooling water system; correct the ambient temperature with adequate ventilation; install a waste heat boiler for proper and efficient fuel treatment; remediate the structural defects in the building; and integrate the employees contracted by Wartsila into the BPL employee pool."
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