A replacement engine for one that failed two years ago at the Garden of Eden power station arrived in the country yesterday and is expected to be operational by mid-February.
The Number 3 set at GPL’s Garden of Eden power station failed in early February 2010 and the US$2.1 million replacement was unloaded at the John Fernandes wharf yesterday. An insurance claim is being processed which will cover part of the cost of the engine in addition to business losses, Stabroek News was told. “It’s a direct replacement to the one we had before,” said Elwyn Marshall, GPL’s Divisional Director-Operations. Marshall told Stabroek News that the 5.5 megawatts engine utilizes heavy fuel oil which will reduce costs as the engines used in the interim utilized the more expensive diesel.
Meantime, Colin Singh, Senior Divisional Director-Projects and Operations said that the Chinese-funded infrastructure development project has started and the sites for the sub-stations are being prepared. The project entails constructing new 69kv transmission lines linking to substations. “Our first priority is the West Demerara,” Singh said noting that a substation will be at built at Vreed-en-Hoop and at Edinburg. He said that GPL is working with the Chinese on developing the sites in preparation for installation of the substation transformers and other structures.
Singh said that work had also started at the Georgetown substation site as well as the site at Good Hope and the one at Columbia, East Coast Demerara is next in line. Seven new substations will be built while existing ones would be upgraded and expanded. The project will see the interconnection of the Berbice and Demerara electricity system. “At the end of it we’re gonna have all of these major power plants linked together and the new substations will provide additional distribution outlets because our distribution feeders are almost all overloaded at this point,” Singh observed.
He said that the 29 new circuit breakers at the different substations will enable the company to construct new lines as well as to break up the existing lines which are long and heavily loaded into shorter lines. This will lead to an improved voltage profile and quality of service to the customers, he said. The project is scheduled to be completed by September 2013 but they are looking to get it done earlier, Singh said.
