Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine yesterday hailed the South Western Peninsula as the cradle of industrial T&T. He said so while opening the sixth power generation plant in La Brea.The minister said La Brea is set to become the next Point Lisas Industrial Estate as international companies buy into the opportunities for investment in the area.
He described the Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU) combined cycle power plant at La Brea as the most efficient power plant in the English-speaking Caribbean, with the cheapest cost of electricity production for both industrial and domestic use.As he formally opened the US$740 million (TT$4.7 billion) plant, Ramnarine said they would save energy, if TGU is operated at its full 720 megawatts capacity and they commensurately turn down the four other plants in Trinidad (not the one at Cove Industrial Estate, Tobago).
"We would save this country approximately 60 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day," Ramnarine said.He said in the scheme of things, this does not sound like a lot of gas because T&T produced 4.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day."However, as the chairman David D'Andrade pointed out, that is enough gas to run a methanol or ammonia plant. Therefore if we run this power station at its full capacity, we will free up natural gas that could be used to create value and generate revenue for T&T," Ramnarine said.