Letter To The 29th Legislature: Casino Bill Revenues Should Be Targeted For The LEAC
Guest Commentary By Clarence Payne
Clarence Payne
With all of this hullabaloo, and both branches trying to one-up the other on the public air waves, who is actually working to address the excruciating cost of living in these islands? Collaboration is essential if our society is to endure this financial catastrophe bestowed upon us by President George W. Bush through his tax cuts for the rich and his careless and uncalled for invasion of Iraq, which cost the US economy dearly.
29TH Legislature, I don’t know if you noticed that there have been at least 4 public protests over the past two weeks: it began on November 9th with a march on Main Street which lasted for about 5 days; then, a WAPA demonstration in front of the legislature on the same day; on 11-11-11, there was Flip-The–Switch campaign; and finally, there was another exhibition on November 16th that commenced at Government House with all parties involved demanding government action on a number of issues, and wound up in front of WAPA, Kingshill, St Croix. Rumor has it that many more organized demonstrations are in the works.
As a concerned citizen, I truly wish that our energy crisis was not tied to politics. Until then I am left with the audacity of hope.
How to convey the pain of the people to bodies of governments who can’t trust each other? This letter is penned to bring the pain of the people frankly to you through this public medium so that our energy crisis can be addressed now.
Every sector of this community is hemorrhaging financially from this volatile problem called LEAC. We cannot operate as if this problem will go away; neither should we, take the Republican party approach to financial problem solving as former Republican Presidential candidate McCain touted during his campaign in 2008: “allow the problem to correct itself”. Can one imagine what would have happened to the automobile industry if President Obama had embraced that “insane” philosophy of McCain and his party? Because our current President was proactive, astute and rational the big three auto-makers came back with a bang and they are better than they had been in decades. Let us applaud our president and his leadership through our financial crisis.
Resolving LEAC will require leadership, handwork, teamwork and community participation on all levels. Politicians, de-politicize our energy crisis! It should not be used by those trying to get re-elected with peculiar statements geared towards mis-leading our electorate.
29th Legislature, you are about to debate Bill NO. 29-0164: casino bill being introduced by Senator Dowe. I realize that the bill speaks to dividing the Casino Revenue Fund into three parts: one, Government Employees Retirement System to assist with unfunded liability; two, WAPA to fund new energy power generating equipment and to assist with the issuance of bonds; and three, the General Fund.
Given that none of these suggestions speaks to the immediate need of the people, I feel compelled to speak out on behalf of the working men, women and the small business sector. Our lawmakers should designate that an equal or greater portion of the revenue generated from this Casino bill be ear-marked directly towards the purchasing of fuel so that the people of this territory, along with the small businesses, can realize a financial savings on their LEAC burden!
There it is, crystal clear. As a matter of fact, on behalf of the working men, women and the small business sector of this territory I am demanding that every revenue-generating bill from now on must set aside some significant portion of the proceeds to go towards the purchasing of fuel so that we can realize a reduction of the LEAC. Please contact the Primary Sponsor of this bill at the legislature at 340-774-0880 and demand a portion of the funds generated from the casino bill go towards the LEAC!
SteamChief:
I don’t know the details of WAPA’s oil usage, other than their 2009 numbers as reported (2,385,003 barrels of oil to produce 872,202 MWh). So, I just took Alpine’s projected output based on 85% capacity (145,197 MWh) and assumed that could offset 16.6% of the oil consumed by WAPA. At 15%-20%, that should be low enough so that it doesn’t conflict with WAPA’s need to produce water with their existing units on STX. 16.6% of 2,385,003 barrels would be a savings of ~$48 million, assuming $120/bbl.
I’m not sure where you came up with 12 MW for Alpine’s projected generation. Their presentation that was posted on CIF a month or so ago mentioned 20 MW (August 2011). Also, their air permit application says 16.5-19 MW (net) and 300 MMBtu/hr (December 2010). A 300 MMBtu/hr heat input and 19.5 MW output translates to a net heat rate of 15,385 Btu/kW-hr. This seems like a reasonable heat rate for a solid fuel plant.
With respect to your theoretical fuel consumption for WAPA, does that factor in efficiency?
Anon;
I am checking into the formulas, and also reading when not working….I believe that the E is not factored in, so I have to average the consumption between the thermal plant and the gt plant…Usually stated for gt is 35%-37% plus the recoop from the WHB. The steam plant should run 33%+
From what I believe I read in the proposal, the first two year out put is 12 MWH sloped to 20 MWH by 2016…
Let me recalc the MFR for the two plants and figure the E, then I will take their fuel delivery and work it backwards…
By the way- kind of interesting that I am surveying my 500,000 lb/hr steam generators (boilers) today- internal exam, steam and waterside- they are Foster Wheeler, just like unit #11- only mine are much bigger and they are 37 years old….
Bet ours are in much better condition aside for plugged superheater tubes..
I can only imagine what the inner workings of the WAPA equipment might look like. Guessing it wouldn’t be pretty.
Are you looking at Alpine’s proposal or their actual contract with WAPA? Their contract says a minimum of 16.5 MW (net). That is constant from year 1 to year 20. In my calculations for fuel savings, I was assuming a maximum for Alpine rather than a minimum. That makes sense to me because I’m assuming WAPA would purchase every kW-hr they can get their hands on, as long as it’s cheaper than oil fired production. That would include Alpine waste to energy and potentially solar, wind, etc, from other providers.
The maximum MW-hr estimates above were based on the maximum heat input/capacity factor in Alpine’s air permit application.
Anon- Yes, I’ll look at the contract and run the figures this evening- I do them calculator and long hand (I’m Old Fashioned)…
On a side note- Boilers looked great, they are real monsters (5 floors high) and it involves a lot of climbing; I was surprised how clean the superheater vestibules are. Out of thousnads of tubes, we only have about 12 plugged- these boilers are the largest marine boilers built- each on is 500,000 lbs per hour, 875 psig- 945 F at the superheater outlet- it takes 1.3 MW just for the forced draft blower- we can burn 6 oil or 2 oil….
Boiler water chemistry is an art (one that I am a professional at) and I still cannot understand how WAPA’s unit #11 can be popping so many tubes and putting all those people without water; by the way- after 18 hours of cooling, I have personally plugged generating bank tubes, superheater tubes, in less than 12 hours and then refilled and fires- what’s up with these guys???
ahm while your beng distracted by alterntive energy costs , you still miss the point that at best we could reduce the cos of production by5 or 10 % after 5 years, mean while 72% of the powrer produced by wapa is going un paid for by those tht use it, putting a burden on those who are being forced to pay for tht power via the leac, if wapa simply cut off power to non escential goverment departments it would reduce the leac by 30%in one month, talking of reducing roductionscost are a good thing but theyhave little short term affact and may in fact drive up the price of power to pay for construction of said facilities.
Maybe we should examine our needs 1st, figure out what is currently equipment is working/not working, do a cost a comparison based on short term, intermediate and long term needs as well as the companies interested in partnering with GVI as well as HOVENSA.
I am currently trying to find the stated kwh rate in the alpine ppa…ANy takers?
THIS IS REALLY SCARY: How come no matter where I look, no matter how many copies of the WAPA/Alpine PPA that I look at- I CANNOT SEE A PLAINLY STATED PRICE PER KWH?
How come no matter where I look- the rate Schedule 5 is missing? What is going on here?
ok, I’ll base everything on figures that I foumd on the net- from everyone from wapa to edin to the energy office;
Figures based on:
42 MW average load= 1008 MWH or 1,008,000 KWH
19,000 bbls/week #2 Oil Delivered (that’s for electric generation only)
#2 oil= 42 gal per bbl, 7.2 lbs per gal, 17000 btu per lb
19000/7(42)(7.2)(17000)=13,953,600,00 btu per day
13,953,600,00/3412= 4,089,586 kwh daily (gross energy value)
1,008,000/4,089,586= overall efficiency of 24%
Should be (Based on EIA)33% for Steam Plants or 37% for Gas Turbine Plants
OR 1,349,563 kwh and 1,513,147 kwh respectfully.
WAPA is therefore running on an average efficiency of 26% below the national average despite getting the fuel for below average costs. That translates to $316,160 a week that the rate payer is being overcharged due to WAPA’s inefficiency.
Alpine @ WAPA cost of .22 kwh:
16 MW= 384,00 kwh (before their 8% line loss)
WAPA pays Alpine $84,480 daily. That value represents about a decreased usage of 660 barrels daily at $128 per barrel translates to about a $48.00 savings per month to each rate payer by average- based on WAPA selling it to us at the current rates. It also means that Alpine’s gross is about $30,835,200 a year- won’t take them long to recapitalize the $250,000,000 or so they ionvested- I would venture to say that after all of the tax breaks, EDC Benefits and all- I think they’ll profit $8 million a year then sell us the plant down the road and make a killing…
I still can’t find the contracted rate that WAPA will Alpine- it seems to be deliberately avoided.
Remember the figures-WAPA collects about $443,520 a day now, based on the residential rates- it’s probably more; 16 MW or 384,000 kwh a day from Alpine represents an oil savings of some 1019 barrels a day or $130,490 less tha they spent on fuel and recaptured $46,010 a day profit at the current rates. That profit translates to a $51.12 monthly reduction per 27,000 rate payers on STX-
That’s if they pass the direct savings, they won’t I’ll bet we’ll be luck to see half.
The entire management and board should be cashiered wholesale and replaced with better managment- WAPA’s efficiency is deplorable and we need a private utility in here..FAST
Clarence….we need you to overview the Alpine scam from the start on air SOON.
Clarence is doing a great job, informing and advocating on behalf of the people.
“The information on how Germany is making their transformation was completely new. I now understand that to affect a change of this nature, it takes the entire community “buy in”. The German Citizens have a desire to bring renewable on the grid and have committed to do so even if means increased cost. We will need that same commitment in the U.S. and I think that will be the biggest challenge.”
Guess who said that?
Hugo Hodge- June 2010 in Berlin, Germany on one of his “energy junkets”- check out the following
:www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/__pr/TCB/2010/06/SGA__Germany__Trip__S.htm
Inter-Island Connection — Puerto Rico, US Virgin
Islands, British Virgin Islands
• Feasibility confirmed by Siemens study
• Evaluating amount of renewable energy that can be
installed and still ensure reliability
Hugo V. Hodge, Jr., Executive Director (CEO),
The Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority (VI WAPA)
This is his next “energy junket” Atlantis Bahamas- Jan 26- 27 2012-
check out:
[PDF]
12th Annualwww.wartsila.com/ss/Satellite?…
He vacations, we pay. He FORCES interconnection against our will- we pay
Get rid of him, hire another director
check out what hugo really likes to do…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkbVLRJOOEs
What IS the connection between Platts Energy and Hugo V ?
The WAPA Board is Hugo’s bosses. The WAPA Board is appointed by the Gov. In this case former Chairperson of the WAPA Board.