safety steps

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, 22nd November, 2023 – The Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) in collaboration with our partners at the Antigua Power Company (APC) discuss the best steps to commission the new 5-engine 47-megawatt Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plant.

The principles of APC and APUA met on the morning of Wednesday 22nd November, 2023 to discuss the system outage which occurred on Tuesday 21st November 2023 due to the LNG plant tripping offline during the performance test as part of the commissioning process.

During this exercise, a single engine failure due to mechanical issues was reported. At the time of the system outage, the load demand was estimated to be 50 megawatts while the generation output from the LNG Plant was reported to be 46.5 megawatts.

While there was one engine online at the Black Pine Power Plant, it was not enough to balance the electricity demand with power generation.

We anticipate that performance and reliability tests willcontinue today, Wednesday 22nd November until, Friday 24th November 2023.

During this time system outages are not anticipated however, we would like to advise our customers that during testing, technical or mechanical issues may arise that may increase the probability of power outages.

The plant will primarily operate on regasified liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, in the interim, it will be using diesel until the LNG terminal is completed in early 2024.

The decision to use regasified LNG, the cleanest of all fossil fuels will result in about 40% less carbon production and is in step with the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and APUA’s plan to reduce its carbon emissions.

There is a need to provide electricity in tandem with the island’s increasing demand for electricity and the present LNG Plant with future Renewable Energy Solutions would form APUA’s generation mix.

With the introduction of this additional plant, it means that we will have increased capacity for generation while allowing for a more consistent delivery of electricity to our customers.