Pow­er­gen has closed the Port-of-Spain plant on Wright­son Road, mark­ing the end of 121 years of pow­er gen­er­a­tion from that plant.

The plant was of­fi­cial­ly re­tired at mid­night and the four stacks that have been a part of the Port-of-Spain sky­line for years, are com­ing down.

The fol­low­ing is a state­ment from Pow­er­gen:

"Thurs­day Jan­u­ary 14th 2016 marked the day that the cur­tain came down on Pow­er­Gen's Port-of-Spain plant. The four stacks that have held icon­ic sta­tus in the land­scape are now re­tired and will soon no longer form part of the Port of Spain sky­line.

This manda­to­ry ces­sa­tion of pow­er sup­ply is in ac­cor­dance with con­trac­tu­al terms be­tween the Pow­er Gen­er­a­tion Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (Pow­er­Gen) and the Trinidad & To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC).

In a mes­sage to staff, Pow­er­Gen's Ag. Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Mr. Surin Ram­s­ingh said, "While many have re­lied for decades on the elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­at­ed by this pow­er gen­er­a­tion plant," it is the com­pa­ny's em­ploy­ees, who have been "an in­te­gral part of this crit­i­cal ser­vice to our na­tion, and the true pow­er be­hind the stacks.'

In ex­press­ing his thanks, Mr. Ram­s­ingh al­so recog­nised their com­mit­ment and de­liv­ery, which he de­scribed as hav­ing "fu­eled this fa­cil­i­ty and il­lu­mined thou­sands of lives over the years."

Since it was first es­tab­lished by Edgar Trip in 1895 and through the changes to a state-owned en­ter­prise in 1937, this site has been a pow­er source to Trinidad.

With the es­tab­lish­ment of the 33,000 Volt Bus­bar Sys­tem, in­stal­la­tion of the Par­sons Steam Tur­bine units in 1961, and the in­stal­la­tion of the Gen­er­al Elec­tric Steam Tur­bine Units in 1969 and 1974, the Port of Spain Pow­er plant pro­duced pow­er at a ca­pac­i­ty of 260,000 kilo­watt. By 1984, that had in­creased to 308,000 kilo­watt with the ad­di­tion of two 24,000 kilo­watt Rolls Royce Gas Tur­bine dri­ven gen­er­a­tors.

Ef­fec­tive mid­night 14th Jan­u­ary 2016 the units were re­tired from the na­tion's pow­er gen­er­a­tion in­fra­struc­ture. This her­alds the com­mence­ment of the de­com­mis­sion­ing process which has

been in de­vel­op­ment over the past year.

Pow­er­Gen con­tin­ues to op­er­ate its two pow­er plants at Point Lisas and Pe­nal."