Director of Utilities updates on the new power station progress
Department of Utilities Director Clinton Chapman
Work is well underway for the new power station expected to commission next month.
A team from Australia arrived on the island last week to commission the switchboards for the new power station.
According to Director of the Department of Utilities Clinton Chapman, most of the switchboards have been connected by the local Power team and are expected to be completed by the end of the week.
Clinton says two teams will be arriving this week to commission the two new engines and the communication interface between the generators with the switchboard, batteries and solar farms.
“At the very moment, in the next two to three weeks, we are having these three different partners work with us to prepare for full commissioning.
“It will mean that they will return at a latter date, probably in 4 to 8 weeks, they will return to do the full commissioning because we still have a lot of work to do and synchronise the new station with our system.”
Utilities Director Clinton says that they are still waiting for TESLA in Adelaide Australia to fix the battery banks damaged from the lightning strikes in November last year.
In the meantime, the old power station will still be in use as backup for the new power station.
“We won’t totally phase that old station out. We leave that as a backup to the new station.”
“We are working with companies in New Zealand right now to refurbish one of our older and better generators that we sent down last year to get refurbished.”
“It’s worth the effort to fix that one and bring it back and install it in the old station.”
“At the old station we will always have generators on standby as backup to the two new ones at the new station so it gives some redundancy and flexibility in operation.”
BCN News also spoke with Premier Dalton Tagelagi in regards to the commissioning of the new power station. He said he is excited and looking forward to when that happens.
Premier Tagelagi extends his thoughts of appreciation to all the workers and Niue Power Corporation team for the ongoing progress in developing the new power station in Tuila.
