St Maarten’s sole energy company NV GEBE is exploring various solutions to fix the Caribbean Island’s load shedding woes.
NV GEBE outlined its plan for short, mid, and long-term solutions during a ‘Candid Conversations’ public information series at the University of St Martin.
The energy company said towards an immediate or short-term solution it revisited an option previously considered, which includes entering into a rental agreement for portable electricity generating units.
These units, which can either be sourced by power boat or containerised, will provide an additional 20 MW, circumventing the shortage of 10 MW and thereby provide NV GEBE with excess capacity to provide efficient services to customers.
From the time of signing the agreement, this initial phase is estimated to take approximately seven days (power boat) to 10 weeks (containerised), depending on the option that is most feasible to meet the demands of NV GEBE’s consumers.
In the plan for mid-term solutions, the additional 20 MW will allow NV GEBE to perform the necessary maintenance and upgrades to their infrastructure and thereby, prepare the company for the development and implementation of its long-term plan, which includes sourcing, Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of a new power station.
Over the long-term, NV GEBE said it aims to comfortably meet the demands of the consumers of St Maarten by expanding capacity with an additional 27 MW, which undoubtedly, includes a percentage of the total capacity generated from renewable energy.
For successful execution of this long-term plan, NV GEBE will need to acquire two to three new production units to meet the N-2 reliability criteria. Financially, this investment is estimated to cost between 35 to 45 million USD. From the time of signing the agreement, the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) phase is expected to take approximately 18 to 24 months.
NV GEBE advised that there’s no guarantee, as these mechanical engines can be unpredictable. However, the vision is for load shedding to become a thing of the past.
It explained that strategically implementing these solutions would bring an end to load shedding, normalise residents’ livelihoods, and facilitate the execution of NV GEBE’s preventive maintenance schedule for the remainder of this year and into 2025.
In terms of consumer relief, all efforts will be made to ensure that the additional costs accrued by NV GEBE towards these proposed solutions will not be passed on to customers; who will only be billed for their consumption, once their power is on.
St Maarten has been grappling with energy issues of late.
GEBE’s temporary manager Troy Washington explained that: “NV GEBE is currently operating at a capacity that is 10-15 megawatts (MW) short. Therefore, the ongoing load shedding is primarily due to insufficient generation capacity.”
The shortfall began on Sunday, May 5, 2024, when one of NV GEBE’s largest production units, Diesel Generator (DG) set #19, encountered a bearing failure. In the days preceding the failure, the power system recorded high load demands and consumption for this time of year, reaching 57 MW. This increased demand is attributed to global climate change affecting the Caribbean region, as well as continuous construction developments on the island.
With the failure of DG #19, NV GEBE’s operational capacity fell short by approximately 3 to 4 MW of the peak demand. Consequently, the company was compelled to initiate load shedding practices during peak hours from 11 am to roughly 6 pm, as a preventative measure to avoid complete blackouts, due to system overloads.
However, on Sunday, June 2, 2024, NV GEBE experienced another setback when the auxiliary section of DG #9 caught fire. The fire was promptly extinguished by onsite personnel, but it caused damage to several auxiliaries of DG #8 & #9, further reducing NV GEBE’s operational capacity by approximately 6 MW. This widened the shortfall to approximately 10 MW during peak periods, resulting in increased load shedding, which sometimes extends up to midnight.
In response to questions about a schedule for load shedding, NV GEBE explained that due to the complexity of load management and the grid configuration, which involves dynamically shifting loads across various feeders where demand fluctuates, providing an exact schedule is challenging.
Customers may expect adherence to such schedules, but due to the aforementioned factors, precise timing of load shedding remains difficult, as it is subject to change based on consumer usage.
However, NV GEBE will continue to post load shedding schedule updates.