The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Incorporated today inked a contract with the Wartsila Company for 15.68 more megawatts to the existing 20.7 megawatt plant at Kingston, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
The announcement of a contract came as a surprise as it was only on October 27 that President Bharrat Jagdeo announced at the GLU delegates’ conference that US$20M more would have to be spent on additional generating capacity. Since then there has been no known invitation to potential suppliers to bid for the supply of the generators. The GINA press release did not provide any information on this and the media was also not invited to attend today’s ceremony.
GINA quoted GPL Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bharrat Dindyal as saying that the signing of the contract, valued at approximately US$18M, marks the conclusion of “negotiations” between the two companies.
“We have agreed that the plant will be completed and handed over to GPL at the end of August 2011,” the CEO said according to GINA.
“We have a very good and extensive track record and we expect that this relationship will grow as we continue to rely on Wartsila engines for our Demerara system,” Dindyal said.
Vice-President, Wartsila Caribbean Inc., Rodney George said according to GINA that notwithstanding the challenges in terms of delivery, the Finland-headquartered company will be working diligently to meet the August 31 deadline.
Dindyal added that, “we are increasing our reliable generation capacity by a further 15.6 megawatts, currently we have an overall capacity of about 88 megawatts but only 64.7 of that is reliable capacity in Demerara. With an increase in the reliable capacity, we are further strengthening our position to improve the quality and reliability of supply.”
Last year December, the public had been reassured that there would be no need for any more generators after the power company installed three Wartsila units at the Kingston power station.
