A South Korean company, Byuckstan Power Company Ltd has won a $454m consultancy for the Guyana Power and Light (GPL)
This was one of the contracts which cabinet gave a green light to at its meeting on November 24, 2016, a release from the Ministry of the Presidency said.
The contract is for the provision of consultancy services to “validate the execution of works contracts for the rehabilitation of the medium and low voltage distribution network”.
The rehabilitation work is coming under the massive Power Utility Upgrade Programme (PUUP)
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the European Union (EU) have put together a US$64M financing programme to cut the utility’s losses among other areas.
The PUUP is the latest in a series of expensive financing packages for the utility which has struggled for decades to tame line and commercial losses.
An IDB release in June 2014, said that the bank has approved loans totalling approximately US$37.6 million and has also secured non-reimbursable investment financing from the EU to the tune of US$26.9 million to “help boost the efficiency and reliability of Guyana’s power system through electricity loss reduction measures, improvements in the operational capabilities, and strengthening the management and corporate performance” of GPL.
The release had said that Guyana is expecting a surge in electricity consumption during the next decade as a result of the growth of its residential and commercial sectors and the projected return of large customers to the national grid.
“GPL is now facing various challenges in trying to provide additional electricity on an efficient and reliable basis, which include high levels of electricity losses. As Guyana’s energy demand increases, the distribution infrastructure will experience greater stresses, and in turn, this will challenge GPL’s management and its ability to manage electricity supply”, the release had said.
The release had added that PUUP is a holistic, integrated approach to support GPL with financing for vital infrastructure investments and technical support for its key business areas. “This support should increase GPL’s overall performance, reinforce GPL’s operational capabilities, and the achievement of a sustained trend in overall loss reduction”, the release had said.
Under PUUP, GPL will rehabilitate approximately 830 kilometres of GPL’s distribution network, the release had stated.
PUUP will be the first project under the IDB’s new Grant Leverage Mechanism, to be co-financed with IDB resources and those to be provided on a non-reimbursable basis by the EU’s Caribbean Investment Facility.
