St. Kitts-Nevis Moving Towards Energy Transition

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - The St. Kitts-Nevis government has commissioned a six-megawatt (MW) rental power plant as the twin island Federation aims to provide temporary stability to the national grid while the sole provider and distributor of electricity undertakes critical infrastructure upgrades.

The government has secured a US$40 million in concessional funding from the Saudi Fund for Development to support the procurement, construction, and operation of an 18MW dual-fuel power plant, coupled with a battery energy storage system.

“As we work toward that new 18-megawatt plant, plus the urgent need to service and overhaul our generators that have been overrun and are on the verge of collapse, plus the vulnerability of the aged generators and the fact that the solar farms are not intended to cover 24 hours of service, it is imperative to implement a reliable temporary supply in order for SKELEC (St. Kitts Electricity Co. Ltd) to successfully achieve its goals,” said Energy and Public Infrastructure Minister, Konris Maynard.

“This new plant will not only provide a more reliable energy future but also would provide a bridge toward achieving the Sustainable Island State Agenda by coupling a clean-burning flexible generation platform with energy storage technology designed to facilitate the proliferation of distributed renewable energy resources which are to be eminently incentivized through the rollout of a feed-in tariff,” he added.

Maynard said the rental power plant from global energy solutions provider, Aggreko, over the nerxt 12 months in the first instance, will allow SKELEC to perform critical overhauls on its fixed generator fleet.

The authorities say this includes essential maintenance on the 25-year-old Mirrlees Blackstone MB430 6-megawatt generator, which is the largest single generator in the federation and is operating beyond its intended capacity.

Maynard said “SKELEC will perform much-needed critical overhauls on the bulk of its fixed generator fleet” during this rental period.

Meanehile, Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew, said St. Kitts-Nevis is in the transition towards reducing its dependence on fossil fuel through the careful implementation of renewable energy practices and projects.

This energy transition, one of the seven pillars upon which the government’s sustainable island state agenda hinges, is underpinned by the build-out of the dual-fuel power plant and battery energy storage plant in St. Kitts, as well as the introduction of renewable energy-powered desalination plants.

“We have determined, through careful analysis, that if we were to transition St. Kitts and Nevis to renewable energy it would transform St. Kitts and Nevis in its totality,” said Prime Minister Drew.

“It will transform our fiscal situation because renewable energy would cost at least two-thirds less than it costs to generate from fossil fuel. Additionally, it will create a lot more new jobs in the green energy space, and with the decrease in the cost of generation it means, to do anything else in St. Kitts and Nevis the cost of operations will go down,” he added.

The government said to further complement the energy transition, it has in close collaboration with the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), making meaningful progress in geothermal exploration on Nevis to deliver cleaner, cheaper energy.

Prime Minister Drew said that if the energy transition the government envisions takes place then “St. Kitts and Nevis will be in a different stratum of development.”