Power on Demand: Conversion Project Under Way at Cartagena
Source: Breakbulk Magazine, March/April 2010 Issue – Although Colombia relies on hydroelectric power for its basic electricity supply, when rainfall is low, the country turns to power plants run by natural gas and other fuels. One such plant is Termocandelaria Power, near Cartagena, on the Caribbean coast. To generate the needed power on demand, the company last year decided to convert from natural gas to dual-fuel, gas-or-diesel operation.
Termocandelaria turned to several project logistics experts, including cargo agent Interflex S.A. of Colombia and its global partner, BDP Project Logistics, to bring in the equipment needed to modernize the facility. Given the tough competition in the electricity market, Termocandelaria wanted the project cargo quickly and at competitive rates. About 40 percent of the cargo for the project was shipped out of the Port of Houston, with the remainder coming from the U.S. ports of Baltimore, Charleston, Miami and New York, as well as from ports in Japan, Germany and Israel.
The components were sent both by ocean and air transportation, including an aircraft chartered from Germany to Colombia. Other shipments were airlifted from Japan since ocean transportation would have taken 45 days.
The operation included trucking various components from sourcing facilities, moving it to warehouses and packing, including vacuum packing to prevent corrosion on some of the cargo, for ocean and air shipments to the Port of Cartagena and Cartagena’s international airport. Most of the over-dimensional cargo was trucked at night using special trailers, which meant some roads in the Cartagena area had to be closed.
By: Leticia Lozano