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‘Cove plant will satisfy Tobago’s power needs’
Published: 24 Oct 2009
Trinidad and Tobago will have evidence at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which T&T is hosting, to show this country is playing its part in the critical international issue of global environment and in reduction of carbon emissions, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday.
Manning made the point in launching the new $600 million dual-power facility at the Cove, Lowlands, in Tobago which was started in 2007 and was delivered ahead of schedule. The station built by the Finnish firm of Wartsila Caribbean Inc, is the first fuel (natural gas) reciprocating plant in the region and will not only meet Tobago’s needs for power, but its 64 megawatts of power will also be enough to supply Trinidad, when necessary, via submarine fiber optic cable interconnections. Manning said, “I’m sure you see the symbolism, this new interconnection underscores the fact that Tobago and Trinidad walk hand in hand, side by side as a single nation facing the future together as equal partners.” T&TEC chairman Clement Imbert said the station represents a new era of independence for Tobago which had depended on submarine cables to obtain power from Trinidad. The station will operate at an interim capacity of 48 megawatts. Ninety per cent of the contractors on the project were local.
T&TEC acting general manager Glenford Cyrille said the station is the first natural gas diesel plant in the region and represented the dawn of a new age for T&TEC and its customers. It will utilise a “green” approach, leaving less emissions in the atmosphere and therefore less of a carbon footprint. He said it was of national importance to go “green.” Manning also said the facility was the first natural gas reciprocating engine plant of its kind in the region and was constructed according to the highest international standards for environmental emissions. He said it was expected to account for a reduction in carbon emissions by thousands of tons annually when run on natural gas. This compares favourably with a similarly sized-diesel plant of older technologies.
Manning added, “When therefore the issue of global environment comes up at the Commonwealth meeting next month in Port-of-Spain we will be able to repeat now, with further evidence to support our claim, that T&T, though a relatively small energy economy, is committed to playing its part in this critical international issue.” He said the situation also strengthened T&T's position for the global summit on the environment in Copenhagen in December when crucial decisions on environmental issues would be taken.
Two other power station initiatives are on the horizon including one at Union estate which will drive the aluminum smelter and which is expected to be completed at the end of 2010, Public Utilities Minister Mustapha Abdul Hamid said yesterday. Speaking at the launch of the Cover power station in Tobago, Hamid said the Union station involves a 700 megawatt supply being built by Trinidad Generation Unlimited. The other planned station is a similar sized facility to be built by Sea Lots to replace the Wrightson Road power station. scheduled for completion by 2013.
Hey mister prime minister:
Hey mister prime minister: do we have a recycling plant in Trinidad? What happens to all the plastic bottles, cans, glass bottles, cardboard boxes, old car tyres, old fridges and appliances...in de river! get real man you ent fooling nobody!
I am not sure whose idea it
I am not sure whose idea it is for Tobago to supply Trinidad with power 'via submarine fiber optic cable interconnections', but fiber optic cables are made of glass, and glass cannot conduct electricity.
I am sure Mr Manning thought of this all by himself.
From recent reports it would
From recent reports it would appear that our gas reserves, at least in commercially viable proven reserves, are not as infinite as we are often led to believe.
In my view sufficient of the country's gas supplies are already committed to existing industrial plants and others coming on stream. No gas should be committed to any of those deadly polluting planned aluminium smelters. Instead some of this gas should be left in the ground as strategic reserves for our own domestic energy needs when the gas eventually begins to run out. We should refrain from managing our gas heritage in the way we have been managing our economy through wastage.
In the meanwhile it's not too early for us to be looking at alternative and renewable greener sources of energy if we want to sport our green badges on our chests at CHOGM and Copenhagen. Areas to look at are solar energy, wind power, biofuels, wave energy, thermal energy etc, coupled with strategies for energy-saving devices, policies and programmes.
Gov't can educate the public on how to conserve energy. Here are a few simple examples: turn off lights in unoccupied rooms/buildings; switch off audiovisual equipment from stand-by mode, replace incandescent light bulbs with low-energy light bulbs, drive responsibly by driving within the speed limit, avoiding sharp acceleration, sharp braking, keeping tyres correctly inflated, boil only the quantity of water needed in your electric kettle, etc. etc.
And most importantly, replace the rhetoric with example and action.
Prince I was feeling the
Prince I was feeling the same way, forget about the damn Alley smelter and leave the gas in the ground oui. Manning talking cxxp as an Alley smelter he plans to build will outdo the footprint he says he is planning to reduce. but as the top leader blogger said if you have gas thats what you will use, if you had coal you will use coal You see the Govt spits out words believing that TT citizens may overlook or believe and the same words that the international community he wants believe. He also thinks that all those developed commonwealth country leaders will believe the Govt. I bet you someone will say to him whey you doing dey boy building that damn Al smelter?
Desmond, Manning has played
Desmond, Manning has played the people in Trinidad for fools for a long time ; now he is trying it on on the people in Tobago, and is rehearsing for the CHOGM and the rest of the world.
The Man has been fixated with aluminium smelters since he was minister of energy in the early 80s. Eric Williams had plans for one in the early 70s but Manley snubbed him preferring to sell Jamaica's bauxite elsewhere. And anything the real father of the nation could or couldn't do, the ursurper can do better.
It would be undiplomatic for any C/W Head to question their host about any internal issue. This could cause a diplomatic incident we could do without. Furthermore, rest assured that the diplomats would have already reported home on this week's proceedings of the Parliament.
No doubt they would have warned their Governments of the mercurial temperament of the PM. They would have described his outburst as the eruption of a seething volcano registering anything over 8.0 on the Richter scale. The suddeness of the eruption caught even fellow geologist Rowley with his trousers down, resulting in clashes of tectonic plates and provoking tsunamis in the north pole, the south pole, the east pole and the west pole.
"Praemonitus praemunitus" (to be forwarned is to be forearmed). No leader in his right mind would take such a risk.
You gotta to use what you
You gotta to use what you have. If we had coal, gotcha we will use coal but we have gas so we use gas. Gas people tell me is less a pollutant than coal. So how come Mr Manning is hogging the limelight as if it were ONLY through his undying efforts and concern for the environment that the plant will leave a smaller footprint on the environment?
Rik Hansel