Heavy equipment arrives for B.E.L. generator
The site of B.E.L.’s new gas turbine power station may have taken some time and consumer aggravation to prepare, but now that the preparation has been done, the heavy equipment should now fall into place rapidly. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods was on hand at the port as the first big pieces were off loaded.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Once assembled at the B.E.L. substation at mile eight on the Western Highway, the gas turbine facility will provide the nation with an additional twenty megawatts of electrical power. The new unit will be used to meet peak demand and in times of emergencies.
Michael Polonio, Project Mgr., Gas Turbine Unit, B.E.L.
“It is not meant to run on a hundred percent sustainable capacity because of the cost. So we have to go to the least cost solution in order to keep rates down and affordable to consumers.”
B.E.L.’s Project Manager for the Gas Turbine Unit, Michael Polonio, says the unit cost thirty million Belize dollars, but it will be money well spent. According to Polonio due to a number of circumstances, B.E.L. is at a point where it cannot meet the peak demand from their three main sources: Mexico, Mollejon and B.E.L.’s aging diesel generators based in Belize City.
Michael Polonio
“We are pretty much on day to day basis as far as the supply from Mexico is concerned, because they are facing the same demand and heat conditions that we are. And therefore they put us on notice when they need to, they say, B.E.L. you need to curtail from your supply. And when you add to that the fact that our main source, the Mollejon facility, there is little water flow, it is a precarious situation.”
This morning, the new gas turbine unit that includes a generator, turbine, a power control module and many other pieces were unloaded at the Belize City Port. The first piece, the operation control house, weighing more than forty-eight thousand pounds, was carefully lowered on top of a special trailer that was brought in from Guatemala for the job. The equipment was shipped to Belize by U.T.C. Overseas Incorporated.
Marco Poisler, V.P., Project Div., U.T.C. Overseas
“We specialize in industrial plants, moving cement plants, power plants, all types of industrial equipment overseas.”
“We contracted this heavy lift ship, which is behind me, that has its own heavy lift crane. We loaded the ship in Houston and it was a quick transit time, five days to Belize City, and we spent months preparing for this.”
Starting tonight, and for the next three nights, the heavy loads will be moved to mile eight. Presently, extensive work is being done at the B.E.L. sub-station to accommodate the unit. Once at the site, it will be situated high enough to protect it from floods and other disasters.
Michael Polonio
“We are standing right now on an elevated platform of concrete that is eight feet above grade. Grade, which is the ground level, is some twelve feet above sea level; so, we are standing twenty feet above sea level. And the reason for that is that our studies have shown that the worse case flood scenario associated with the worse hurricane, could be as high as twenty feet. So by the time it gets here, it would be somewhere in the region of seven to eight feet.”
The new gas turbine unit is schedule to be in operation by the end of July. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
In order for the wide loads to be moved from the port to the substation, the Ministry of Works advises motorists that the Western Highway between Belize City and mile eight will be closed to traffic tonight and Wednesday night from eight to ten. During that time eastbound traffic should re-route through the Burrell Boom road.
