Electricity supplies to residential and commercial customers of T&TEC are not expected to suffer any disruptions because of the shutdown of Trinidad Generation Unlimited, a power plant that supplies electricity to the national grid.
So said Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. The TGU plant was shut down yesterday because of a gas leak on the NGC pipeline which supplies it.
Plant shutdowns at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate allowed T&TEC to maintain a reliable power supply throughout T&T yesterday. The line was being rectified, Ramnarine said, and meanwhile natural gas for power generation was being supplied by five other sources so the supply to residential and commercial customers would not be compromised.
He said the leak was discovered at 1.08 pm on Wednesday and was contained to a small area in Barrackpore. While Ramnarine did not want to say how long it would take to rectify the problem, he said the National Gas Company (NGC) had estimated nine days.
He said the company was on site and waiting for the natural gas pipeline to be depressurised, and the TGU plant continued with gas that was in the line the previous night but “came down at approximately 9 am (yesterday).”
Ramnarine said TGU normally supplies about 300 megawatts of power to T&TEC. “As a consequence of the problem, T&TEC has to adjust its supply balance to the country and it has been doing that by going to some of its large industrial customers and having them come offline,” he added.
Ramnarine said he had ensured the supply to residential and commercial customers was not compromised, although Atlantic in Point Fortin, which is also supplied with natural gas from the same pipeline, was not shut down but was operating at 65 per cent capacity because of the problem.
Ramnarine said while the figure had not been calculated there would be a financial loss to the country as a result of the problem. “It is natural to expect that at some point in time you would have an issue like this,” Ramnarine added.
He said he had every confidence in the NGC was rectifying the problem in the shortest possible time.