Chief Operations Officer (COO) at the island’s sole electricity provider, Dominica Electricity Services Limited DOMLEC, Dave Stamp said,in terms of load shedding, the company is not completely “out of the woods” but in a much better position today as compared to last week with the addition of the Aggreko system.
He made the announcement while speaking at a press conference on Tuesday.
DOMLEC has entered into a rental agreement with Aggreko, a US-based generator rental firm to lease two units generating three megawatts of electricity. The units arrived on the island on Friday, November 10 and the commissioning process began on Sunday (November 26).
Once the units are fully commissioned Dominicans should see a significant improvement in the load management which has been going on for the past weeks now.
“We are in a much better place than we were obviously from last week by the addition of the Aggreko system,” Stamp said. “We are not where we want to be, because the statistics I gave you said we have a 3-megawatt reserve margin.”
He continued, “Our largest unit in the system right now is close to that in terms of capacity. So, if that unit develops a problem, then we are back to running on the edge.”
Stamp added, “We are not completely out of the woods, but we are near to the edge of the woods…we are not deep in the middle of the woods as we were…”
In terms of load shedding, Stamp pointed out that last week in some cases there was more than 3 to 4 megawatts of load shedding, “so many of our customers were inconvenienced.”
However, he said today, the available capacity including the Aggreko units is 18.5 megawatts.
“Our projected peak load for today is about 15.5 megawatts, so we have a 3-megawatt reserve margin,” he explained.
Furthermore, he revealed that there was no load shedding yesterday, “and we are pleased about that.”
“Today we are also not projecting load shedding, but even though we still have the load shedding projections that we sent out from last week, we kept with the advisory that it is pending, because we are still in the commissioning process,” Stamp stated.
He said the country went through the entire independence and Creole Festival season without any load shedding and immediately after that, there was the incident in Trafalgar where the pipeline was damaged.
“This is the first time that there is consistent, consecutive periods without load shedding.”
He added, “We are really pleased [about] that.”
Stamp said DOMLEC is continually working to overcome the load shedding in the near term and also in the longer term.
Meanwhile, he said in addition to the units at Trafalgar DOMLEC currently has another diesel unit that has been out of service for major maintenance and the company hopes to have that returned to service by mid-December or earlier.
“That should put us in a much better position,” Stamp noted.
He went on to state that the ultimate long-term plan is to receive geothermal power. Energy Minister Dr. Vince Henderson announced in July this year that the target date for getting geothermal power on the grid is 2025.
Don’t forget to ditch those big old machines, leased or unleased, ..AND, stop Vince with the excuses kicking the goal down that long street and build the geothermal plant.
I notice you’re not mentioning rate increase….hmm, hopefully not for too long.
@Ibo France, yes Dominica has been trying to build an international airport for eons. It started back in 1970 with LeBlanc. When Patrick took over an international airport was promised nothing was delivered, Eugenia came promised and international airport and could could not deliver. Edison came, promised and could not deliver, his attempt at an international airport was a financial disaster, he took a loan of 140 million and squandered it, no airport was built, the current government is still paying back this loan. The past Prime ministers who could not live up to their promises of building and international airport, I would not refer to them as liars simply because they failed to deliver on a project that the economy could not afford, they were simply over ambitious. Your liar Skeritt is the only Prime Minister to have a contract signed and actual work started on this airport, the ongoing work is there for all to see. The geothermal project will be completed leaving some people vex.
The labour party has been in power for longer than all those administrations COMBINED with the current Prime Minister serving for most of that duration. And they are the only ones who ever proposed a geothermal project which is going on over a decade now.
Somebody is bamboozling somebody they have been talking about the hot steam on the mountain for 20 years and still no electricity. Who is pocketing the money for the research? Here they go again the usual bamboozelement and con.
The billions from our passport sales that are in some foreign bank somewhere could buy at least two brand new generators. DOMLEC is leasing generators, for how long? What is the cost to lease as compared to purchasing, especially when there is enough to buy instead? Voodoo economics. Dominicans have been made to suffer. Small businesses, in fact all businesses faced serious setbacks.
Yet, no word about investments in Solar and/or Wind energy. Authorities have no clue re. the outcome of this Geothermal exploration experiment. The energy from the sun is readily available and abundant. Fail to Plan, plan to Fail all the time.
Why is he even talking about geothermal energy when we are nowhere near realizing that dream. When I say dream, I mean dream.
Domlec needs to stay out of dat geothermal discussion like it is the one that going to deliver it to us by 2025.
stick to your solar project please……..let us know when you plan to begin work at warner or tarreau
leave geothermal talk for Vince and Skerrit
Dave Stamp to me is just pure garbage you’re talking. Geothermal? 2025? So what happen to the license that the IRC gave you all to do the power plant in Tarreau?
I suspect they send you up front to tell lies. But it’s ok, lying tongue does smell
Potas!!!
Would I like the government to realise its objectives of geothermal energy and an international airport? Yes! It would redound to the benefit of all Dominicans.
Under the stewardship of Lying Roosevelt, I have serious reservations that these two significant projects will ever materialise. The man at the helm of government over-promises and under delivers. The man specialises in duplicity. The international airport and geothermal energy have been bandied about for eons.
Roosevelt should be dubbed the Great Liar of Morne Daniel. If you believe this fabricator, you would also believe that elephants can fly.
Dave Stamp to me is just pure garbage you’re talking. Geothermal? 2025? So what happen to the license that the IRC gave you all to do the power plant in Tarreau?
I suspect they send you up from tell lies. But it’s ok, lying tongue does smell
Potas!!!