Ocean Conversion (BVI) Ltd.
BAR BAY
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Plant
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Capacity: Contract
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Customer: Commissioning
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This facility is located in the British Virgin Islands on the island of Tortola, near the community of East End.
Commissioned in 2008 with an initial production capacity of 720,000 US gallons per day, this facility is designed to be easily expandable to 1.4 million US gallons per day.
Water produced by this facility, under a 7-year water sale agreement, is sold to the Water and Sewerage Department, a government agency, for use in the public water supply on the island. As the island has very little groundwater resources, all the water supplied via the public water system is desalinated.
Because the cost of electricity on Caribbean islands is typically 4 to 5 times greater than in the United States, and Tortola is no exception, a critical factor in the design and operation of this plant is the overall energy efficiency of the facility. To that end, the plant utilizes the advanced Calder DWEERTM (Dual Work Exchanger Energy Recovery) system to recovery energy from the high pressure brine stream.
The plant has a 100% emergency electrical power plant, such that it can produce desalinated water at full capacity independent of the public electrical supply. Seawater feed for the plant is obtained from wells located on the beach approximately 400 yards from the plant itself. The well heads were designed to be buried so as not to adversely affect the beach aesthetics. The brine is disposed of through an open sea brine outfall system.
The plant is controlled and monitored by an advanced computer control system. The system monitors all critical plant systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This system helps minimize labour cost as the plant is not manned on nights and weekends, though remains operational.
