Wigton in talks to replace Phase One turbines

Within three years, renewable energy company Wigton Windfarm Limited will be replacing equipment that will become obsolete, a project that should ease the amounts spent on maintenance of the turbines it operates in central Jamaica and produce electricity more efficiently.

The affected turbines are the 23 installed in the first phase of Wigton’s build-out in 2004, said Managing Director Earl Barrett.

Wind turbines have a useful life of 20-25 years, based on industry standards.

“As we said in the prospectus, by 2024, that plant will come to the end of its useful life as the original equipment manufacturer, OEM, said. Some companies, based on location, have been able to get a little bit more life from them,” said Barrett, whose reference to the ‘prospectus’ related to the company’s initial public offering of shares on the stock market and listing in early 2020.

Although Wigton was privatised, the Government of Jamaica holds a ‘special share’ in the wind farm, through the accountant general, that in the early years of the listing allows it certain decision-making powers, including blocking hostile takeovers of the renewable energy company.

“We are actively in discussions with Government through our parent ministry (Mining & Energy) for the replacement of those,” he said, of the turbines, without specifying what precisely is being sought. And as to the expected investment to be made and the timing of the replacement of the 23 turbines at the Wigton complex in Rose Hill, Manchester, Barrett also declined to comment, citing stock market disclosure rules.

Meanwhile, in a bid to cut costs, Wigton Windfarm has parted company with Operations Manager Rohan Hay under what the company described in an October 15 market filing as a restructuring exercise that made his position redundant as of October 31.

Hay, a registered professional engineer, was in the position since 2009 after stints at the former Ritz Carlton hotel in Montego Bay, Alumina Partners of Jamaica, and the former Jamaica Telephone Company, which has changed names over time and is now known as FLOW Jamaica.

Barrett says the decision to part company with Hay may appear be a big move, but was not, adding that it aligned with efforts to flatten the organisation and remove layers that are not needed since there are no growth projects at this time. As an example, Barrett says if the Guyana project had materialised, whereby Wigton was attempting to sell its expertise in setting up wind farms as a value-added service, then Hay would possibly have been designated to head up the effort.

Wigton has about 27 permanent staff, with each of the three phases of the wind farm being managed by a chief engineer, who is assisted by other engineers and technicians.

“You could operate a wind farm the size of ours pretty much remotely,” Barrett said.

Wigton, which was previously state-owned and was divested by the Jamaican Government via the stock market, was optimistic at the point of its privatisation that it could expand as a technical expert to the Caribbean. However, the pandemic has derailed those plans for now.

“If you look around at the other independent power producers, not just in Jamaica but the rest of the Caribbean, there are very few new projects happening now. Everybody has to be tightening up,” he said.

Alternatively, Wigton is looking to achieve greater operational efficiencies in order to drive value for the business and its approximate 25,000 shareholders. For example, the wind farm has been relying on technology to assist with the predictive maintenance necessary for the optimal utilisation of the turbines and prolonging their useful life.

“In taking over the plants, we got the necessary monitoring software to assist with scheduled maintenance, but as the industry evolves, we get new and improved tools that allow for more predictive maintenance, which is a step ahead of the regular schedules,” Barrett said.

It puts Wigton in the position to forestall major equipment breakdowns by acting on data gathered from a wide array of transducers that read signals from the various components of each wind turbine, transmitting them to a central database for further processing.

Wigton Windfarm Limited is the largest wind energy facility in the English-speaking Caribbean whose operation comprises three plants with total capacity of 62.7 Megawatts. Wigton I, developed in 2004, has a capacity of 20.7MW; Wigton II added another 18MW in 2010; and Wigton III, 24MW in 2016.

The company says that since becoming operational, its contribution of power to the national electricity grid has served to reduce national oil consumption by close to 406,000 barrels and saved Jamaica almost $3 billion.

neville.graham@gleanerjm.com