About Jamaica Public Service
BOGUE POWER STATION
The Bogue Power Station, located on the Bogue Industrial Estate in the city of Montego Bay, is our second largest power station. It houses the 120-megawatt combined cycle generating plant, and contains five gas turbines with total generating capacity of 83.5MW. The first turbine, designated as GT3, was commissioned in 1972, and the other four turbines (GTs) were commissioned into service during 1990 and 1991.
COMBINED CYCLE PLANT
We invested approximately US$120 Million in the construction of the 120-megawatt combined cycle plant at the Bogue Power Station. The addition of this new plant moves our generation reserve margin from less than 20% to nearly 30%, thereby significantly improving our ability to provide supply that is more reliable.
Combined cycle technology is recognized internationally as one of the most advanced and efficient means of generating electricity. The new Bogue plant consists of three individual units: two combustion turbine generating units with a total capacity of 80 megawatts, and one 40-megawatt steam-generating unit. The two combustion turbines fire on diesel fuel but can be converted to natural gas at any point in the future. Heat from the exhaust of both combustion turbines is harnessed to produce steam by way of two heat recovery steam generators that are used to drive a steam turbine that can generate up to 40 MW.
The combined cycle technology allows for greater efficiency of conversion; that is, it utilizes less fuel to generate each unit of electricity relative to other generating units. This results in reduced fuel costs to JPS, and ultimately to our customers.
STATE-OF-THE-ART CONTROL SYSTEM
With the construction of the new power plant, the Bogue site now boasts a new state-of-the-art centralized computer-based control facility for the combined cycle plant, as well as the other six (6) generating units at this location. The control facility allows interface between different technologies on both the old and new units. It allows the online management of the operations of all the generating units, and other major components such as the cooling towers and water treatment plants.
BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL NEIGHBOUR
The new generating plant was developed as an environmental flagship. We entered into an unprecedented partnership with the National Water Commission (NWC) to use treated wastewater from the NWC’s Bogue treatment plants during the generation process. We constructed our own treatment facilities to treat and purify the grey water from the NWC plants, and installed underground pipes to transmit the water between the sites.
We have taken our commitment to good environmental management that much further by ensuring that the noise and emissions performance of the combined cycle plant complies with local and international environmental standards. The combustion turbines were retrofitted with water injection for emission control, and an acoustic management system that makes the units virtually inaudible during operation. This site also has an online air quality monitoring station that forms part of our overall Environmental Management System.
