By Samantha Simon
Antigua’s two major solar farms are currently operating at reduced capacity as APUA works to restore both facilities to full operational status.
The facilities, located at Coolidge and Bethesda, remain online but require significant repairs and parts replacement to achieve optimal performance.
At the Coolidge facility, technicians are actively working to rebuild inverters as part of an ongoing rehabilitation project.
“We are presently working on bringing them up,” explained Eustace Lynch, APUA’s Electric Business Unit Superintendent. “We have some issues with the plant itself where we have a number of broken modules and we would have purchased some spare parts for the inverters.”
Lynch indicated that while APUA has secured replacement parts for the inverters, full restoration is affected by delays due to module and equipment availability, with the restoration timeline for the Coolidge facility dependent on replacement solar modules.
“Fully online is going to take some time because we have a number of broken modules. We have the inverter parts, but we don’t have the modules yet,” Lynch added.
The Bethesda facility recently resumed operations following a comprehensive assessment that necessitated a temporary shutdown due to inverter complications.
“The entire farm is up and running, but we have some inverters here and there that might need displays,” Lynch noted.
Progress on the Bethesda facility’s restoration has advanced to the procurement phase, with APUA having received necessary quotations for replacement components.
“We received a quote, so we’re now in the process of the procurement process,” Lynch confirmed.
Both facilities continue to contribute to the island’s power generation capacity despite their current limitations.
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