LNG to fire up Bogue plant in early October
Published:Thursday | September 22, 2016 | 12:00 AMEdmond Campbell
The 120-megawatt Bogue electricity plant in Montego Bay, which has been retrofitted to use liquefied natural gas (LNG), should be up and running on October 7, producing electricity at about US$0.12 per kilowatt hour.
In June, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) was charging residential customers about US$0.21 cents per kilowatt hour.
Chief Financial Officer of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Dan Theoc said the New Fortress Energy Company would be pumping gas through some 1.6 miles of underground pipelines to the Bogue facility.
The LNG operation will take effect in October, following a missed August deadline for implementation.
Theoc told members of the Economy and Production Committee of Parliament yesterday that the fuel would be stored in a 130,000 cubic vessel at sea, with a second vessel delivering cargo to land.
Full operation in November
Senior Vice-president, generation, at the JPS Joseph Williams said that by early November, the Bogue facility would be in full commercial operation.
"By early November, we will be in full commercial operation," Williams said, adding that "we are well on our way to having natural gas as a source of fuel in the generation fleet, something that we have been waiting on for many years, and we are happy to report that this definitely will happen in 2016."
He blamed delays in the implementation of the project on additional dredging at the port to accommodate the ship with the LNG.
The JPS spent US$22 million to retrofit the Bogue plant.
However, committee chairman Anthony Hylton had some concerns about the current arrangement to deliver LNG locally. "The storage of LNG at sea, that seems to be a significant shift. Bringing LNG was never simply electricity over wire. It was always, from the very outset, about some other industrial uses."
Responding, Theoc said under the new arrangement, LNG would be landed in Jamaica and other industries are slated to benefit. "We are not going to lose the benefit of having LNG landed in Jamaica ... . I don't want to tell their story, but (New Fortress Energy) is contracted to sell LNG on land to large players, I know of at least two deals that have been done."
He said the company is expected to make an announcement in weeks.