Power outage

The load-shedding began at 7.15 am and affected persons throughout Trinidad, from O’Meara, Mausica and Five Rivers in the east to Point Fortin in the south. The massive power outage was estimated to have affected 60 percent of TTEC’s customers.

NGC’s problems actually began sometime on Wednesday, as, according to a statement, it began receiving “an unusually high level of liquids from our gas supply network. This has resulted in a restriction in the gas distributed to TTEC and to some of our other customers.” The company also said the restricted supply of natural gas to TTEC began at about 7 am yesterday, but was normalised at about 8.20 am.

Stating that “gas supply for electricity generation remains our highest priority,” NGC apologised to the public for any inconvenience caused.

There was speculation by some that sabotage was behind the incident but NGC denied this, issuing a statement late yesterday evening stating “we do not have any evidence of sabotage.”

According to NGC, these liquids could have entered the pipeline during the exploration/production process.

“Liquids are formed during the exploration/production process as produced water, condensed water and condensate (natural gas condensing into the liquid phase). In a process upset, these liquids can migrate into the piping system in higher than normal quantities,” NGC stated.

The company also explained how excess hydro-carbon liquids affected its gas supply to TTEC. “Liquids in the pipeline in large quantities reduce the available space in the pipeline for natural gas. This will cause the flow and pressure to drop,” NGC stated.

Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine yesterday assured that Government would always place the supply of electricity to the nation ahead of any other commitments. “NGC has shut down its supply to most of its major customers on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate and of course, as a consequence of that, is directing its natural gas to PowerGen and indirectly electricity from PowerGen would go to TTEC. Our first priority is always to maintain electricity supply to the people of TT,” Ramnarine said at the post-Cabinet press briefing, Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. Ramnarine explained that NGC’s domestic system, in which the liquids were found, connects the Poui Alpha Platform on the east coast to the NGC’s domestic grid, which brings the gas all the way to the Phoenix Park Valve Station, also known as the Phoenix Park Slug Catcher, which is in the vicinity of the Yara Plant on the Southern Main Road.

“As a result of that,” Ramnarine said, “there was a reduction in natural gas pressure to TTEC. As a consequence of that, the PowerGen plant at Point Lisas; which is the country’s largest power plant in terms of capacity, went down and the PowerGen Penal plant was impacted...As a consequence of that, TTEC was affected and there was load-shedding taking place in Trinidad and Tobago.” Ramnarine said while the authorities had “a pretty good idea of the cause of the problem” he did not want to elaborate on it before getting a full report on the outcome of NGC’s investigation.

The minister also said Petrotrin would be working through last night to help NGC remove the liquids from that pipeline and those liquids will be stored at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.

“You can’t dump that liquid, neither can you burn that liquid. It has to be stored somewhere. This is oil, water and condensate. “So we expect that in the next 24 to 48 hours, things would return to some level of normalcy at Point Lisas (Industrial Estate) and I believe all reports coming from TTEC and PowerGen are that TT’s electricity supply is back to normal.”

Petrotrin’s corporate communications manager, Gillian Friday, yesterday said the refinery had not been affected by the load shedding, while Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation Ltd (PLIPDECO) president, Ernest Taylor, also noted that operations at the port had not been affected. In a media statement, Atlantic LNG also said there was no disruption in electricity to its Point Fortin facility. “Our facility’s power supply is generated from a small percentage of the feed gas provided to us by the upstream gas suppliers,” Atlantic stated, adding, “Our production will therefore not be impacted during the load shedding.”