The new multi-million dollar Giftland Mall, which is nearing completion at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara, is set to be opened on Independence Day May 26, 2015.
Giftland President Roy Beepat told reporters yesterday that in a project of such a scale, it is important that all its facilities are sustainable and that concerns about water, sewage and power are met. To this end, the complex, which is expecting to service about 20,000 people per day, will have its own sewage facility, water treatment plant and power plant. It is expected that the water and sewage facilities will come online in April and the power plant in mid-May. Once the power plant is fully functioning, the complex will be opened.
Reporters were given an opportunity to tour the specially built power plant yesterday.
The plant, which costs in excess of US$4M, is the company’s largest and most expensive investment. It is being commissioned so as to ensure the mall’s electricity demands are met in a reliable manner, since it will take between 1.5 and 2 MW of power daily to efficiently supply its needs, with peak levels reaching 1.8 MW.
The power plant, according to Beepat, has two 2.5 MW engines, therefore, it will generate 5 MW daily, meaning that the mall complex will be operating at 100 per cent redundancy as one engine will be running at time and the other engine will serve as back-up.
The excess energy produced can reportedly power up to 6,000 households. Highlighting that Giftland is a community-oriented company, Beepat said that they would be willing to provide the excess energy to the University of Guyana or a nearby housing development at a price. “It would be mainly for whatever the cost is, as you can imagine something like this is not cheap…. So, once we could cover those costs, we would be happy to supply the government and the people of Guyana,” he said.
The power plant is equipped with a fully automated computer control system.
The engines will automatically start-up and shut down depending on the demand load of the mall. It has state-of-the-art monitoring technology and control systems that can be viewed and controlled through a computer system.
In order to properly operate the plant, Giftland is expecting to employ nine electrical engineers and 12 power plant technicians, all Guyanese. Christian Bautista, Proper-ty Manager of the mall, told Stabroek News that Giftland will be willing to partner with the University of Guyana’s Faculty of Technology to offer internships to students studying Electrical Engineering.
Beepat has said the mall is perhaps the most significant social development initiative in the country as it addresses deficiencies encountered in securing food, clothes and family entertainment, apart from the 2,000 opportunities for direct employment.
