Certainly, the major project during 2010-2013 had been the phase one electrical installation. Between the permitting approval and installation of phase one, it was a substantial project. The first 4 years were design, permitting, sub station refit, road permits, environmental approvals, Municipal permits, engineering and red tape. The install work started in July 2010. The crews installed the concrete poles and required reinforcing requirements in the island and then the project moved forward with stringing the high voltage line now over the 10 kms and 120+ new concrete poles that we have been putting up since then. The route is from the Salinas Grandes road over 5.8 km to the mid island location. The tranformers required for household servicing are now installed and functioning up to and inside of Playa Tesoro!
With transformers installed, we recently installed the secondary 110 volt lines for the upcoming construction of our first houses. Above is the wiring of the the Construction container on the site. As shown, we have functioning power and lights. Playa Tesoro is currently in the approval process for the 2 bedrm house plans. Upon approval of the house plans, we will be commencing construction on two beachfront lots and initial clubhouse bldg.
High Voltage Service to Mid Island Complete
The upgrade of electrical service to North American standards is going well. This phase of providing 5.8 km of new concrete poles and 25,000 volts of power to the mid island area is in its project finalization in 2011. This section of concrete poles attaches to the 3 phase municipal line on the Salinas Town Main road. We have added close to 90 new concrete poles since June 2010, stretching from this area across several miles of farmland to the island. Each pole is grounded and supported with guy wires or an engineered base for the sandy island soil. We will have hand tool useable electricity in 2011. This is a privately funded and owned power line, for the use of our clients and two neighboring developments. Union Fenosa will not connect any other without our consent, which we are happy to give but need to recover our investment.
The historical milestones of this project are a) Maximum load calculations based upon development designs was performed and submitted with a request for 25,000 volts in 2006 b) Union Fenosa approved the power usage for Playa Tesoro in early 2008. This means the electrical utility will provide the high voltage amount requested and will make arrangements for a substation to deliver the power. c) The final approval for over 85 pole locations was confirmed in January of 2010. As the land on either side of the public road is private, it was required to gps locate each pole and have Union Fenosa approve the respective pole location. d) Concrete poles were delivered on site in June 2010 and over 85 poles were erected/grounded/supported to April 2011. This is the bulk of the project. e) Insulators, wire stringing, transformers are in progress in mid 2011.
Electricity is measured in terms of voltage and current. Using the analogy of water supply, voltage is analogous to pressure, and current is analogous to flow. Voltage is measured in Volts (V). Current is measured in Amperes (A). Power is Voltage multiplied by current, measured in Watts (W) or thousands of watts, kilowatts (kW). One kW is equivalent to 1.34 horsepower.
Electricity is distributed as Alternating Current (AC). Whereas a battery has two terminals, one that is always positive (+), and one that is always negative (-), AC changes, or alternates, from positive (+) to negative (-) at a set frequency, usually 50 times a second (50 cycles per second or Hertz or Hz).
At the development, the power line terminates at a pole mounted transformer. At this point, the 25,000 single phase line is reduced to 110-127 volts that we are familiar with and runs our tools & appliances.
INDIVIDUAL BACKUP SYSTEMS
The individual houses will be offered an alternative generator system. The electrical hook ups are incorporated into the electrical plans for the houses. The two options are a) Full automatic Kohler generator system for full household. It will automatically switch on should the power go out. The system is either a 40 or 80 gallon tank and uses 1.5 gallon per hour to run the ENTIRE house. This will cost over $10,000 usd per residence.
The second system is a Honda 11 hp gasoline generator. One would pull the cord and run the generator until the primary electrical system returns. The cost of this system is approximately $1400.
We are looking for a suitable battery backup system, however, we do not have a system we can recommend to the homeowners. The biggest challenge with a battery system is the 2 year life of the battery and system maintenance.
February 2007 - Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, the world's third-richest man behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, will invest $250 million in Nicaragua's telecommunications sector over the next three years, his local phone company Enitel announced February 6th. Slim is a Lebanese immigrant to Mexico whose father started a small shop. Despite no English fluency, Slim has amassed a fortune in the Spanish speaking telecommunications sector spanning the globe.
Slim met with President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua in early February and said he could do business with the former 1980s Marxist guerrilla leader, who returned to power in January.
Enitel said in a statement that following the visit Slim had decided to invest $250 million in Nicaragua's telecom sector between 2007 and 2009.
Enitel has invested more than $300 million over the last three years in Nicaragua. The planned $75 million investment for 2007 will be directed at the areas of mobile, fixed line and data telecommunications, as well as high-speed Internet systems