Consolidated Water Co Ltd announced on 9 April 2014 a new contract to refurbish the Lower Valley desalination plant, which it built in 1997, and the extension of an existing contract to operate the North Sound desalination plant.
Both contracts are with the Water Authority-Cayman (WAC), the water utility owned by the Cayman Islands Government, and each of the plants is located on the island of Grand Cayman, where Consolidated Water has its headquarters.
The refurbishment of the 800,000 GPD (3,000 m³/d) Lower Valley plant includes complete replacement of the high-pressure pumps; the first and second pass membrane racks, including membranes, pressure vessels and piping; the energy recovery systems; the controls systems; and associated electrical power systems.
The WAC will demolish the existing Lower Valley equipment to be replaced under the contract and prepare the existing plant building for installation of the new equipment. The contract requires completion of the refurbishment work within 250 days following the contract’s execution date.
Following the commissioning of the refurbished plant, Consolidated Water will operate the plant for a period of three months and comply with certain performance criteria before transferring the plant to the WAC.
The company also announced a 12-month extension of its contract to operate the WAC’s 1.6 MGD (6,050 m³/d) North Sound seawater desalination plant.
Consolidated Water constructed and commissioned the North Sound plant in 2002 for the WAC, expanded its production capacity in 2007 to 1.6 MGD, and has satisfactorily operated the plant under contract since commissioning. The operations contract was originally scheduled to expire on 1 April 2014.
The WAC has extended the contract for 12 months, with certain adjustments to the terms of the contract as agreed between the WAC and the company and approved by the Central Tenders Committee of the Cayman Islands Government.
The 12-month extension period will allow the WAC sufficient time to arrange the public tender process for a new operations contract for the plant, as required under the Cayman Islands Public Management and Finance Law. Consolidated Water intends to participate in this tender process.