Synergy Holdings Inc says the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project will yield benefits to Guyana for generations to come and is asking for time to “do it right”.
President Bharrat Jagdeo had said at a press conference two weeks ago, that Synergy must financially close soon, or run the risk of losing the franchise to provide a hydropower solution to Guyana’s electricity needs.
Synergy Holdings announced yesterday that it has entered the final stage of preparing bid documents for the project to allow it to solicit international engineering, procurement and construction bids.
The company said in a press release that the US$371 million project had all the equity it needed and it was fully engineered and ready to go out for international bids and financial closing.
However, because of the poor credit rating of Guyana and the inability of the Government of Guyana to provide a sovereign guarantee for the hydro facility, the project will depend on the financial strength of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL). Synergy Holdings noted that GPL was not in the best financial position and this made the banks more cautious.
Because of this, Synergy and the government will need to work together to attract the best possible financing terms so as to get the lowest cost of power out of the project.
The project schedule has construction starting this year and delivering power to GPL in December 2011. In the first phase, the project’s capacity will be 100 megawatts and in the later phases, this will be expandable to 1,000 megawatts.
“We still will be able to achieve the delivery date assuming all the agreements with GPL and the government can be wrapped up quickly,” CEO of Synergy Holdings Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall said.
“We are also simultaneously working on the construction documents, engineering specifications and to re-look at all aspects of the construction including the alignment of the transmission lines now, to write a clear set of specifications so the bidders will reduce their contingencies and offer the most competitive pricing.
GPL also needs to shore up its finances so we can get the best possible senior debt, look for concessionary financing from the various sources so that the capital and financial costs of the project are lowest,” Motilall said.
