The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority will attempt change the mind of the Puerto Rico Energy Commission concerning the Aguirre Offshore Gasport.
"Construction of the proposed Aguirre Offshore Gasport is necessary for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to comply with the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and is essential to achieve fuel diversification by reducing the high reliance on petroleum derived fuels, in accordance to the energy public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico," PREPA said Thursday in a statement to the press.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is trying to get PREPA to comply with the pollution standards.
The port is to allow the offloading of liquefied natural gas and its transfer to the Aguirre power plant. The plant currently makes electricity exclusively through the burning of oil. PREPA has been planning not only to construct the port but also to convert units at the Aguirre plant to the burning of natural gas.
The conversion of the plant would help stabilize electrical prices in Puerto Rico, PREPA said. PREPA provides all the electrical power on the island. The islands' electrical price formula includes an adjustment that depends on the price of fuel. PREPA's power plants overwhelmingly burn oil to produce electricity. Over the last decade oil prices have varied widely.
At the end of last week the Energy Commission barred PREPA from spending more than $15 million on gas port and the conversion of the plant for the time being. The port and the conversion of the plant would be expected to cost $517 million, according to PREPA executive director Javier Quintana Méndez.
PREPA had argued to the commission that it had insufficient data on possible variations in fuel price, electrical load and price to provide a range of forecasts to the commission.
The commission rejected this argument. It said in its order to PREPA last week, "The gap in analysis left the commission unable to determine the economic value of the Aguirre Offshore Gas Port." The commission didn't reject going forward with the port but has said limited resources should be allotted to it until the commission can make a decision.
PREPA said Thursday it would go forward with the other capital projects that it and the commission agree on.
