SHAS­TRI BOODAN

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

The Gov­ern­ment will move to im­me­di­ate­ly re­view the ex­ist­ing pow­er pur­chase agree­ments with Pow­er­Gen and Trinidad Gen­er­a­tion Un­lim­it­ed (TGU).

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath made the an­nounce­ment when he spoke with Guardian Me­dia on Sun­day night, while at­tend­ing Ram­leela cel­e­bra­tions at Dow Vil­lage in Cal­i­for­nia, Cen­tral Trinidad.

Min­is­ter Padarath said the agree­ments had been left to lan­guish over the years. He said plans to en­gage with stake­hold­ers in the pow­er-pro­duc­ing sec­tor to make elec­tric­i­ty gen­er­a­tion more vi­able in col­lab­o­ra­tion with T&TEC, Pow­er­Gen, and TGU.

“There will be an im­me­di­ate re­view of the pow­er pur­chase agree­ments,” he said.

The Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter added that sev­er­al pro­pos­als are on the ta­ble to utilise ex­cess elec­tri­cal pow­er to gen­er­ate rev­enue.

“I’m now tak­ing re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Pow­er­Gen and TGU, and there­fore, would like to as­sess the cur­rent arrange­ments, as there have been chal­lenges due to the lack of re­view of the pow­er pur­chase agree­ments in­volv­ing both multi­na­tion­al and na­tion­al com­pa­nies,” he ex­plained.

He said he in­tends to bring to­geth­er key rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Pow­er­Gen, TGU, NGC, and T&TEC for dis­cus­sions.

Min­is­ter Padarath al­so out­lined plans to boost pow­er pro­duc­tion in To­ba­go, not­ing that T&TEC’s fa­cil­i­ties at the Cove Pow­er Plant need to be up­grad­ed. He said the Gov­ern­ment is work­ing with the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) to en­sure this is done.

Speak­ing about the Ram­leela cel­e­bra­tions at Dow Vil­lage, Min­is­ter Padarath said he has at­tend­ed the event since child­hood, hav­ing grown up in Cou­va South.

He ob­served that Dow Vil­lage has ex­pand­ed be­yond its cur­rent ca­pac­i­ty and may re­quire a larg­er fa­cil­i­ty in the fu­ture.