BAPCOL Completes Major Engine Overhaul

The Blair Athol Power Company Limited, BAPCOL, is vital to Belize’s national grid, with a production capacity of up to twenty-five percent of the country’s total power consumption.  The company, which is a subsidiary of Bowen and Bowen, recently completed a major engine overhaul, a process that is arduous and time-consuming.  Today, we spoke with Rosanna Villanueva, B and B’s corporate relations manager.

Rosanna Villanueva

Rosanna Villanueva, Corporate Relations Manager

“At the BAPCOL plant we have three generators along with three corresponding engines.  So we call each of those a gen set.  After every, about twelve thousand running hours, the engine has to be overhauled and these are very large engines so doing it is, you know, quite a large undertaking and one of them underwent a complete overhaul recently.  The BAPCOL plant was originally the BAL power plant because it was constructed in 2006 and it was to provide power exclusively to the Belize Aquaculture Limited shrimp farm.  Eventually it went into an agreement with B.E.L. to sell the excess energy that was produced into the national grid.  It later became an independent power producer and is one of the power producers that sells energy to B.E.L.  Our plant, originally when it was built, there were no trained persons in Belize who could manage and run the power plant, so initially the workforce was half from other Central American countries and they were tasked with training the local workforce and we’re very proud now that the entire plant is operated and maintained by a very highly skilled workforce of Belizeans.”