The US$20 million recently identified as necessary to expand Guyana Power and Light(GPL)’s generation system by 15.6 megawatts may not be the last such investment required, the company’s CEO Bharrat Dindyal says.
Dindyal told Stabroek News yesterday that the company will be required to increase its generation capacity from time to time until the Amaila Hydropower plant comes into operation. He said that each year the local demand for power increases and this would require additional investments. The Amaila hydropower plant is expected to come on stream in 2014.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, while delivering the feature address at the recent opening of the Guyana Labour Union’s Triennial Delegates’ Conference, indicated that government has increased expenditure on its hands including a further US$20M for a power plant before the Amaila hydropower project is in place. This was the first time this additional expenditure had been announced.
Last December, a US$27.5 million power station at Kingston was commissioned, adding 20.7 megawatts to the generation capacity of GPL. It boosted the current capacity to approximately 83 megawatts which more than covered last year’s Christmas demand. The company had anticipated that this demand would be as high as 78 megawatts. During a tour of the power plant in October last year, while most of the city was grappling with constant blackouts, GPL chairman Winston Brassington had said confidently that blackouts due to generating capacity would end with the commissioning of the new plant. At that time there had been no further plans for another US$20M being used to increase generating capacity.
When Stabroek News pointed this out to Dindyal yesterday, he said that the company knew from the inception that more investments would have to be made. He said back in 2002, there was talk about increasing generation to 30 MW, while in 2005 an increase of 35 MW was being considered. He said that in 2009, the 20 MW plant was commissioned, with the intention of increasing this capacity over time. Dindyal said that the company is arranging to have two 18-cyclinder machines each with a capacity of 7.8 MW to be in place by August of next year.
The CEO told this newspaper previously that the plan for this additional investment was on the agenda since late last year, and it was confirmed by a recent study financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He said that about two months ago, a definite decision had been made to pursue the investment to achieve this additional capacity.
Dindyal said, during a press briefing yesterday, that GPL has a generating capacity of 84 MW, and with the Garden of Eden plant expected to be operational soon, a further 3.5 MW should be made available. However, of this capacity, about 64.7 MW is “reliable capacity,” Dindyal said. He said that there is the need to increase this generating capacity by 6 to 7 MW annually to cater for the increased demands coming from the businesses that are being set up and additional equipment being purchased by consumers. The CEO, however, assured that there is enough generation to cater for the load that is expected during the Christmas season.
Meanwhile, the CEO indicated that the company is continuing with its frequency conversion exercise in the city. The exercise is to convert frequency from 50 Hertz cycle to the 60 Hertz cycle. When this exercise is completed by early next year, more than $300 million could be saved annually, since converters will no longer be used as a critical link, Dindyal said.
According to Dindyal, customers will experience a healthier voltage and this will result in their appliances performing better.
This will increase power consumption, but the CEO said that this will not affect the customer’s bill significantly. So far, some areas in Kingston and North Cummingsburg have been completed, while areas in Lacytown, South Cummings-burg, Kingston, Stabroek and Robbstown are to be completed.
Dindyal said that companies who have standby generators with modern automatic transfer switches may have to reprogramme these switches to 60 Hz to recognize the frequency of the power supply.
