NEVIS-A team of GEBE managers were among a group of regional electricity companies that attended the West Indies Power Geothermal Conference in Nevis on Friday, February 20, 2009. GEBE Commercial Manager, Steve Duzanson, GEBE Saba Manager, Dexter Johnson, and GEBE Statia Manager, Fred Cuvalay, along with electricity company representatives from Anguilla, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, St. Kitts, and Nevis were updated on the latest developments in geothermal electricity on Nevis. A presentation was held by Turbo Care, one of the world leaders in design, manufacturing and service of turbines used to generate electricity. The company is one of only three global players when it comes to supplying turbines for use in geothermal environments. Technical information was distributed [d1]on the types of geothermal engines that would be used to produce electricity from the steam from the steam wells.
The conference included a visit to one of the three test wells that was drilled by West Indies Power where a demonstration was held to familiarize the delegates with the steam and brine of the steam well[d2]. Construction of the geothermal power plant at Nevis will commence this year, according to West Indies CEO, Kerry McDonald. When completed, the Nevis plant could supply 50 megawatts (MW) of electricity; enough to fulfill all of Nevis' demand (approximately 10 MW[d3]) while the surplus could be sold to St. Kitts and other countries.
West Indies Power has also begun exploring geothermal energy in Dominica and will soon start exploration drills on Saba. Although the potential energy available on Saba is thought to be substantial, one of the challenges is that there is limited flat land available for the construction of a power plant. However, once these geothermal power sites are constructed and operational, power can be exported to neighboring islands via submarine electrical transmission cables. Ultimately, West Indies Power would like to create a Caribbean interconnection grid spanning from Grenada to the Dominican Republic that would be able to supply these islands with a constant supply of renewable electricity to meet their base load demands.
A second conference is planned later this year to discuss the technical trends and developments of submarine electrical transmission cables. The choice of cable will depend on the length of the cable, the amount of current running through it, heat loss factors, etc. The laying of these cables is very expensive and can run upwards of $2 million dollars per mile. Nevis is located 70 miles away from St. Maarten and Saba is 28 miles away.
GEBE is exploring the use of geothermal energy as a possible solution to diversify the islands' energy sources as part of the company's vision to provide quality, reliable and affordable electricity taking the environment into account. Part of the strategy to achieve this is to reduce the islands' dependence on oil especially after record high oil prices resulted in exorbitant electricity rates in 2008. It will be several years before the island could really be able to receive geothermal electricity and there will be a number of issues and challenges that will need to be resolved. GEBE believes that geothermal energy could be a feasible solution to provide a substantial portion of the Dutch Windward Islands' electricity in the future.
