With financing pegged to be settled by the end of the second quarter of this year, construction of the Amaila Falls Hydropower Plant (AFHP) should start late in 2011, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said on Monday.
“The AFHP is a major transformative project for Guyana that will allow a quantum shift from being a country entirely dependent on fossil fuels for electric power to one meeting its entire national requirements for clean renewable sources by 2015,” Singh said, during the presentation of the 2011 national budget
The Amaila project has been on the agenda for over a decade. It was embroiled in a major controversy last year when the government awarded an access road contract to Fip Motilall. Critics had said Motilall had not proven his road-building credentials.
Singh noted that the AFHP is sized at 134 megawatts (MW) and financing for the project of US$650 million will come from equity contributed by Sithe Global, equity from Govern-ment under the Low Carbon Development Strategy and debt financing. The contract for the construction of the access roads was awarded last year.
Singh said that the pursuit of power generation through renewable resources remains foremost on government’s development agenda and progress continues to be made on the AFHP, which is being developed as a public-private partnership using a 20 year Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) model.
But, Singh added, notwithstanding the coming into operation of the AFHP, critical investments are needed to meet current growing energy demand. “…Notwithstanding the coming into operation of the AFHP, critical investments are needed more immediately to meet current growing energy demand,” he explained. “The generation of adequate, reliable and affordable power to supply the needs of individual citizens and our burgeoning private sector remains an urgent priority, the realization of which will ensure a more competitive private sector and a more productive citizenry,” he added.
An additional 15.68 MW, at a cost of approximately US$18 million, is to be added this year to the 20.7 MW plant at Kingston, he noted. “This will substantially improve the reliability of power, allow us to meet peak demand with an appropriate margin of comfort, and provide also for more efficient rotation of machinery for maintenance.”
This year also, Singh said, further work will be done on the conversion to heavy fuel oil at the Canefield Power Plant and work will commence later this year on the 69KV transmission line linking the Vreed-en-Hoop and Edinburgh substations. Additionally, works will also see the installation of two 500kVA generating sets at Leguan and one 500kVA set in Wakenaam during the second half of this year.
GPL will also seek to further reduce technical and non-technical losses to 30.7% through various interventions, including the implementation of Phase 2 of the Georgetown frequency conversion/standardization of a further 8 MW from 50 HZ to 60 HZ.
Further, communities of Port Kaituma and Mahdia will benefit from the recently completed construction of networks and the installation of generators to supply 1,200 households with electricity, while allocations of $15M each has been made to the recently established Port Kaituma and Mahdia Power and Light Inc. respectively, to ensure the sustainability of these interventions, Singh said.
In addition, he announced that US$4.2M is earmarked under the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund through the LCDS for the hinterland electrification programme which targets the distribution of 11,000 solar panels to homes and other critical installations in the hinterland.
Last year, the minister noted, over $5.3B was spent in the power sector. The year marked the end of the Unserved Areas Electrification Programme, which amounted to US$21M over its entire life. Major achievements under this programme included the grid network being extended to facilitate an additional 45,602 potential service connections with a total of 17,324 new connections achieved. Hinter-land communities were able to benefit with 1,432 households and four primary schools now receiving electricity at Muritaro, Yarakita, Capoey, Kurukubaru, Chenapau, Yupukari, Sand Creek, Red Hill, Santa Aratak, Jawalla and Paruima.
