Jan. 23, 2009 — To bring the overdue St. Croix waste heat boiler online smoothly, the V.I. Water and Power Authority's governing board voted Friday to let WAPA Director Hugo Hodge Jr. hire project manager the Maguire Group as commissioning agent as well, tasked with getting the finished boiler fully operational.
At their January meeting in the St. Croix WAPA offices, the board authorized WAPA to allocate $336,000 to extend the Maguire Group's management contract and pay for commissioning.
"It's important to have a commissioning agent on hand," Hodge said. "Maguire is very experienced in doing so and is already intimately familiar with this project."
St. Croix's new money-saving waste heat recovery boiler was to be complete before the end of 2008, but was delayed and it may be six more months before it comes online. (See; "New Boiler For Richmond Plant Runs Into Delays.")
The heat recycling generator, the second of its kind for the island, will reduce fuel consumption and improve efficiency in the Richmond plant by capturing the energy normally exhausted into the air from two gas turbines and recycling it to generate steam for water and power production. The steam-recovery boiler generates more than half as much electricity as the original boiler, essentially getting a 50 percent boost in the power generated by a gallon of fuel. The board also authorized WAPA to lease a reverse osmosis water purification unit from Seven Seas Water at a cost of $367,000. One of WAPA's units on St. Croix badly needs overhauling, Hodge said. Instead of producing 1.2 million to 1.5 million gallons of potable water a day, it is producing only about 600,000. But taking it offline would result in extensive water shortages until the work is done. A temporary extra unit avoids that problem, Hodge said.
Plans for a WAPA gas and diesel fueling station on St. Croix moved forward, with the board authorizing Hodge to spend up to $363,000 to build it on property owned by Devcon corporation in Estate Richmond. The station will save WAPA about $5,650 a month by letting it buy fuel wholesale for its work trucks and other vehicles.
Payment of a $93,000 special assessment to the V.I. Public Services was also approved, and after discussing the contractual details in executive session the board voted to authorize Hodge to renegotiate fuel contracts with Hovensa, ceasing to pay all bills two days in advance and returning to a monthly payment schedule.
Board members present were: Gerald Groner, Noel Loftus, Juanita Young, Brenda Benjamin, Cheryl Boynes Jackson, Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Robert Mathes, Parks and Recreation Commissioner St. Claire Williams and Division of Personnel Director Kenneth Hermon Jr. Donald Francois was absent. All votes were unanimous with the exception of the vote to retain the Maguire Group, where Mathes abstained.
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