Consolidated Water Co Ltd announced on 1 February 2011 that it has entered into a binding letter agreement with its customer, the Water & Sewerage Corporation (WSC), to increase the daily production capacity of its Blue Hill plant in Nassau, Bahamas, by approximately 67% to 12 million GPD (45,000 m³/d) compared with the plant’s current capacity of 7.2 million GPD (27,000 m³/d).
At the same time, Consolidated and WSC have agreed to extend the term of the original 20-year Blue Hill contract by approximately 5 years (to 2031). Consolidated has agreed to finance the design and construction of the new plant and will operate and maintain the expanded facility during the term of the extended agreement.
Consolidated CEO, Rick McTaggart, said, “We are pleased to announce this agreement with WSC, which will allow the citizens and businesses in Nassau and throughout the entire island of New Providence to sharply reduce their dependence upon more expensive water that is currently barged from Andros Island to port facilities at Arawak Cay on New Providence Island.
“By expanding the Blue Hill plant, WSC should eliminate almost US$ 7 million in capital spending that would have been required to relocate the present barging operation from Arawak Cay, and should realize several million dollars in additional yearly cost savings by replacing barged water with locally produced desalinated water. ”
McTaggart added that the economics of the Blue Hill facility, which is Consolidated’s largest plant and has been delivering water to WSC since 2006, should significantly benefit from the expansion in capacity and the 5-year extension of the contract with WSC.
The capacity expansion is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2011, following which the combined production capacity of Consolidated’s Blue Hill and Windsor plants in Nassau will approximate 14.6 million GPD (55,000 m³/d).