More talks needed on old Port of Spain power station

PORT OF SPAIN mayor Joel Martinez, along with the city corporation's chief building inspector Deoraj Ramtahal, paid a site visit to PowerGen's cooling water system, a component of the city's decommissioned power station, on Wednesday.

They were joined by PowerGen project manager Patricia Chin Cheong and representatives of the Ministry of Works and Transport.

The stakeholders, including the corporation and the Ministry of Works, held discussions last year in light of the decommissioning of the power plant, at the corner of Wrightson Road and Colville Street.

Chin Cheong led a walk-through, sharing the history and function of a cooling water pump house, a major component of a power station.

The corporation issued a media release the following day, saying, "With the aid of a map the attendees were also able to visually navigate the exact channel of the intake and outfall of water and fuel oil from the Port of Spain Power Station."

Components of the power station that they considered were the seawater intake, intake channel, the cooling water pump house, the culvert between the cooling water pump house and the power station, and the cooling water outfall channel.

It said a number of factors arose at Wednesday's visit with respect to sealing off the outfall and redirecting the intake channel, "so much so, with the recent plans for the revitalisation of Port of Spain this now plays a major role in the redevelopment of PowerGen."

The release said further consultations are scheduled with relevant stakeholders about PowerGen’s cooling water system.