At a special meeting Wednesday, the V.I. Water and Power Authority’s governing board extended the contract for commissioning its fuel-saving waste heat recovery boiler on St. Croix to Sept. 15 and authorized WAPA to pay $450,000 more for the delayed final work.
"As you know we’ve indicated previously the waste heat boiler will be completed in August and the Maguire Group’s contract expired at the end of June," WAPA Director Hugo Hodge Jr. said to the board. "So we need to extend the contract until the end of the project."
The fuel and money saving boiler was to be complete before the end of 2008 but was delayed, in part due to long delays in shipping custom-made parts from countries in Asia.
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.
Board members Juanita Young and Noel Loftus asked whether WAPA was confident the boiler would be up and running in August.
"If we don’t, there is a different hat waiting for me," Hodge said. "But yes, they are moving along. All the large parts are in. The wiring is being done now. It appears we are looking good to complete in August."
The $450,000 expenditure includes $346,000 to pay Maguire Group from July through September, and $104,000 for Maguire invoices due from before the contract extension.
Meeting by teleconference in WAPA’s St. Croix and St. Thomas offices, the board voted unanimously in favor of the extension and payment. Board members present were: Brenda Benjamin, Gerald Groner, Cheryl Boynes Jackson, Noel Loftus, Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Robert Mathes Donald Francois and chairwoman Juanita Young
Absent were Parks and Recreation Commissioner St. Claire Williams and Division of Personnel Director Kenneth Hermon Jr., both ex-officio members of the board.
Before entering into executive session to discuss personnel issues, the board members offered condolences to board member Williams and observed a moment of silence in memory of his wife Carmen Muckle Williams, who recently passed away.
