JCK Engineers, Inc.

01/25/2012

We completed the latest battery of tests the local utility company asked us to do. Now they have another set of tests they want completed, but we don't have official approval yet, so we don't know when we can start. At best we'll get approval tomorrow, which will likely mean that Friday would be the earliest we could start...but who knows.

The weather has been cooler than last time I was here--lots of fog and overcast skies. This tends to trap the smoke from the trash fires, and exhaust from the motorbikes and cars, so it really is bad looking. The sun burns through by the afternoon, so it does warm up. It gets as high as about 88 deg F in the day, and about 75 deg F first thing in the morning...and very humid. No rain at all this trip.

01/25/2012

Pineapple Lady & Son. They train them early here.

01/17/2012

The site superintendent invited a local ‘street vendor’ in to prepare fruit for the workers.

01/06/2012

Project Commissioning continues...
There is now fuel on site and the plant is connected onto the transmission grid. My company is sending me back to finish the commissioning. I depart on January 10th, 2012, and hope to post updates here...

11/21/2011

I left the country on Friday. It was a national holiday since the Pope was in town. Our power project is owned by the government. This is the first time that a power plant has been owned by anyone other than the electric utility--so there seems to be uncertainty as to who has authority to authorize us to close our main switch. Therefore, we never got the authorization. There is a severe power shortage leading to regular blackouts (sometimes 3-4 per day), but until they figure out who has jurisdiction, our plant will be waiting.

There is also the issue of getting fuel to the plant. The primary fuel source, natural gas, is literally 'on the other side of the fence,' about 200 meters away. However, the government can't seem to find a way to finish the pipeline. We can also operate on Jet Fuel, but this type of fuel is very expensive, and apparantly no one in the government can find the money to purchase the fuel.

Therefore all the start-up specialists, myself included, were sent home. Perhaps they'll get their act together. If they can authorize interconnection and get fuel to the site, it looks like I'll be going back as early as sometime in January--but I'm not holding my breath. JK.

11/19/2011

It's Saturday morning and I am in Paris--on my way home.

11/14/2011

The electric utility today energized our 161,000 volt (161 kV) tie to our plant. We are still waiting for authorization to close the main switch and start delivering power, but we hope to get that tomorrow. JK.

11/12/2011

Quick panorama of power station & surrounding area.

11/11/2011

My 40 minute commute to the project site condensed to under 10 minutes...

11/09/2011

I'm getting tired of driving to the jobsite through the traffic. While dodging other cars and motorcycles is exciting, the pollution from the vehicles is really bad. Sometimes I can hardly breathe, and my eyes constantly burn. I am sure the lifetime of the residents must be shortened just by breathing the emissions twice every day. The men with the yellow shirts are motorcycle taxi drivers. There are very few taxi automobiles--about 98% of all taxis seem to be motorcycles. Yesterday I saw a motorcyclist driving with several twenty-foot lengths of 5" diameter PVC pipe--holding the pipe with one hand and holding the handlebar with the other hand. Also, another motorcycle had one human passenger, and a third passenger--a goat (being held by the human).

11/09/2011

11/06/2011

I arrived in Benin about a week ago, but I've been working 12 hour days--so there hasn't been much time to post much here. Here are a few photos. Enjoy.