MAN Diesel

The island of Bonaire (formerly the Netherlands Antilles), has been a special municipality of the Netherlands since 2010. It lies in the Leeward Antilles chain of Caribbean islands, with an area of 288 square kilometers (111 sq.mi.)

With the commissioning of its sophisticated new sustainable wind-diesel hybrid power plant, Bonaire became the first Caribbean island capable of 100% renewable energy. This project’s aim was to transform today’s largely fossil fuel-based energy supply infrastructure in Bonaire into one based on the application of 100% sustainable energy sources within five years (bio diesel extracted from algae).

The Bonaire project featured a 14 MWe turnkey power station with site work, roads and electrical connections. HH Angus was responsible for all mechanical, electrical, civil structural engineering, including various piping systems (heavy fuel oil, light fuel oil, lubricating oil, compressed air, etc), high and low voltage distribution, and PLC control systems. All mechanical detailing was completed with 3D CAD software, with related materials captured in Excel for the bill of material procurement.

Our design scope covered a capacity increase to 20 MW (designed for future use) and was based initially on Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) as the principal fuel, and light fuel oil (LFO) as an alternative. The plant was designed with the capability to be converted to operate on biofuel in future. Also included in the project was an extensive tank farm with storage of HFO, LFO and lubricating oil.

The plant consists of 5 X2.85 MWe MAN Diesel generating sets at 11kV, and was designed as a base load plant with parallel displacement production from a windfarm generating system. Each genset is selectable to dual busbar systems that each step up to 30kV for island distribution.

This is the only power plant on the island. The diesels supply voltage regulation, as well as VARs and power production to supplement the island’s needs when wind production has been harvested to maximum benefit.

Special care had to be taken to integrate the control systems of the wind turbines and the diesel engines, as the grid performance has to be maintained through fluctuations of the wind resource. The diesel engines have to respond to the changes in output from the wind turbines in order to maintain electrical grid balance.