The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A rejected landfill bidder last night urged the Government to ensure the winner offers “the same or more” as its $400m investment, up to 200 jobs and two renewable energy solutions.

Fay Russell, president of the Bahamas WTP consortium, told Tribune Business that the group is “not going anywhere” despite failing to be awarded the New Providence landfill management contract as its solutions were a “scalable” fit for Family Island waste facilities.

Confirming that the Ministry of Environment and Housing had sent the consortium formal notice that its bid was unsuccessful, Mr Russell disclosed that Bahamas WTP had offered both waste-to-energy and solar solutions as part of its offer to tame the landfill.

He revealed that the proposed 80 megawatt (MW) waste-to-energy plant would have supplied Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) with 60-65 MW per hour, diversifying the utility’s energy mix into cheaper, cleaner renewables while also eliminating present and past trash streams.

Bahamas WTP also planned to “level the mountains of trash” and cap them, so that a solar farm producing two MW per hour could be placed on top and deliver two renewable sources to BPL.

Mr Russell said the consortium intended to create between 180-200 jobs at the Tonique Williams Highway site, with Bahamians accounting for 90 percent-plus of employment. Derelict vehicles and tires would have been collected and recycled from New Providence’s streets as part of a comprehensive solution to the island’s long-standing waste management woes.

Mr Russell’s confirmation of Bahamas WTP’s rejection means that the winning bidder is either BISX-listed Bahamas Waste or the consortium featuring Providence Advisors and its principal, Kenwood Kerr, and the Bahamian waste services providers who remain in the Waste Resources Development Group (WRDG).

Mr Kerr last night said he had not received any confirmation or rejection notice from the Government. Bahamas Waste’s chairman, Peter Andrews, and Francisco de Cardenas, its chief executive, could not be reached for comment.

Tribune Business sources previously suggested that the Providence Advisors/WRDG consortium had been selected as the preferred bidder, and the Ministry is due to hold a press conference today to likely announce the winner.

Romauld Ferreira, minister of the environment and housing, revealed on June 27 - some two months ago - that the Cabinet had chosen the winning landfill bidder from the three remaining offers, but nothing further was disclosed.

Bahamas WTP, in a statement last night, joined environmental activists and others in questioning the delay in revealing the bid winner, saying: “What has been going on in the past two months since the selection was made in the Cabinet?” Mr Ferreira last week attributed the delay to the need for the Attorney General’s Office to evaluate the bids prior to issuing a Letter of Intent.

Mr Russell, a Bahamas permanent resident since 1998, told Tribune Business that the group hoped the winning bidder had offered “the same or more” than it had done. He described all three contenders as “good companies”, revealing that Bahamas WTP would have explored the possibility of working with its two rivals had it prevailed.

“We sincerely wish that the successful bidder will provide this and more for the Bahamian people,” Bahamas WTP’s statement said of its proposal. “Bahamas WTP would provide for foreign investment estimated at $400m, with zero upfront cost outlay from the government and payment, through a power purchase agreement (PPA), stretched out over 15 years.

“The benefits outlined in the Bahamas WTP [proposal] to the Bahamian economy are significant: Zero amount added to the national debt...... and a multi-million capital infusion to the economy over a three-year period with no balance sheet off-set.

“Further, projected employment of 180-200 employees (management & line) at above current management and labour rates, with up to 90 percent-plus of all facilities and services maintained/managed by skilled Bahamians.”

Mr Russell, expanding on Bahamas WTP’s offer in an interview with Tribune Business, said it proposed supplying BPL with waste-to-energy priced at 25 cents per kilowatt hour for the plant’s first 10 years.

Describing this as a 50 percent reduction to present energy costs, he disclosed that the price paid by BPL would fall to 10 cents per kilowatt hours after that decade as Bahamas WTP would have recovered its construction costs and be generating the necessary return on investment (ROI).

Mr Russell added that ownership of the waste-to-energy plant would have been handed over to the Government long-term, with its original development by Bahamas WTP guaranteed and bonded (insured).

“We wanted to build a waste-to-energy plant; level the land down, those big mountains of trash there; cap it permanently and put a solar farm on top of it so we could have two sources of energy to deliver to BPL,” he told Tribune Business.

Mr Russell said Bahamas WTP’s waste-to-energy plant would have been based on the one that exists in Palm Beach, Florida, which he described as “the premier model in the world”.

Apart from Mr Russell, Bahamas WTP’s principals include Cedric Scott, the actor, producer and uncle of former Cabinet minister, Jerome Fitzgerald, and banker Ivylyn Cassar, whose Equity Bank & Trust acts as the company’s physical address in western New Providence.

The consortium also featured two US companies, Delaware-incorporated Ameresco Ltd and Louisiana-based Furnace and Tube Services Inc. Ameresco is a financier and developer of energy efficiency and conservation projects, while Furnace and Tube Services provides engineering design, installation and maintenance.

Mr Russell last night said Ameresco, a billion-dollar New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listed company, was “fully prepared to provide all the funding” required for the New Providence landfill deal - the final amount of which would have been determined by the contract negotiated with the Government.

“No money was needed from the Government until we delivered the waste-to-energy plant within 24 to 30 months,” he explained. “We’d have taken over management immediately.” Furnace and Tube Services, which has built two renewable power plants in Mexico, had planned to train Bahamian employees to standards where they could be internationally certified.

Mr Russell said Bahamas WTP had intended to transform its workforce from an initial 7:3 ratio in favour of Bahamians to 9:1 in favour of locals, adding: “We planned to work with the University of the Bahamas and set up a technical school so we could train everyone working for us and they would be internationally certified.

“We spent two years on this and a lot of money, and people ought to know what the other two bids offered. If awarded the contract, we would have reached out to the other two groups and find out if there were ways to work together. We had an incentive programme for the waste haulers to deliver straight to the waste-to-energy centre.

“We thought the thing through very carefully. We met with the people of Jubilee Gardens and surrounding areas, and wanted to make those communities a bit better. You cannot live forever by digging a hole in the ground and stuffing trash in it, especially on an island the size of New Providence.”

Mr Russell continued: “The landfill is a toxic problem right in the centre of the island, and you have people getting sick and going to the hospital. You’ve had some major fires there. It’s a permanent problem until it’s resolved on a permanent basis. You have to find some way of getting rid of the trash other than incinerating it.”

Nevertheless, he praised the Department of Environmental Health Services (DEHS) team currently running the landfill for doing a good job in managing the facility with limited resources.

Looking to Bahamas WTP’s future, Mr Russell told Tribune Business: “There is nothing to stop us coming back and offering a waste-to-energy plant solution now the RFP is over. We’re not going away; we’re still very interested in the Bahamas. Hopefully we’ll get an opportunity to do something else.

“We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to hang around and see what else comes up. The problem needs to be resolved all over. We can scale units that work in the Family Islands, dealing with waste and providing power. Those things we can do.”

Bahamas WTP’s proposal also involved remediation of the landfill’s existing waste cells and deployment of a new leachate system, as well as the creation of a new cell as a short-term solution for incoming waste.

“In essence, our response addresses and satisfies every single item listed in the RFP and considerably more,” the group said. “For instance: Completion of the much-needed waste water treatment plant; establishment of a technical college to train the Bahamian workforce for management and trades-related skillsets required for a technologically-driven landfill; recommended installation of micro grids throughout the island to avoid black-outs.”