The St. Vincent Electricity Services Limited (VINLEC) South Rivers Power Station has been reopened.
The South Rivers Plant was the first hydro station that was built here and commenced operations in 1952. Rehabilitation work on it commenced in 2016 and formed part of VINLEC’s Hydro Rehabilitation Project.
Phase one of this project was restoration of the Richmond Power Station.
In his remarks at Friday’s reopening ceremony for the South Rivers Power Station, VINLEC’s Manager Engineering, Dr. Vaughn Lewis said the Hydro Rehabilitation Project which was completed at a cost of about twenty million dollars, is one of the largest capital projects in the history of the Company.
He said the project will increase the energy output from the South Rivers Power Station by about 20-25 percent or approximately one million units annually.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves congratulated VINLEC on the rehabilitation and restoration of its Richmond and South Rivers Power Stations.
The commissioning phase of the South Rivers Plant started in July and was completed in August. A team from VINLEC’s Engineering Division worked on the final phase of the project along with representatives from Gilkes, a UK based Company that specialises in hydropower projects.
Both Richmond and South Rivers Stations are now fully automated. This is being done using the SCADA Technology- that is Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. The Richmond Power Station is being monitored and controlled from the Cumberland Station, while the South Rivers Stations is being managed from the Cane Hall Power Station.
