A 5.4 megawatt (MW) power plant, pegged at a cost of $1.81 billion, was commissioned yesterday at Anna Regina and Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo said it had the potential to revolutionise the lives of Essequibo residents.
“GPL [Guyana Power and Light Inc] has delivered on a promise. We [the government] have a vision for Guyana and that vision will never be and should never be allowed to be extinguished,” he was quoted as saying by the Department of Public Information (DPI) at the commissioning ceremony.
According to Nagamootoo, the commissioning of the power plant is one step further in the right direction to make Essequibo the gateway to Guyana’s future.
He reiterated that while “oil and gas will make us rich, we need to turn to our food security for a more lasting future, based on what we can produce.”
He added that government is researching possibilities of bridging the Essequibo Coast with Goshen. “With access to billions of acres of land, this will take Essequibo into the zone of industrial development. This is part of the vision that the government has for Essequibo.”
Nagamootoo also disclosed that the government will next be commissioning 1.5 MW photovoltaic power station at Bartica and then another at Canefield.
“People of Essequibo will be better off. We have the capacity to do many things in this region. We are celebrating an integrated development here today,” he added.
Meanwhile, DPI reported Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson as saying that the brand new sets at the plant have a life span of 20 years.
DPI noted that the new plant is the first in the county to utilise heavy fuel oil, which is more economical for operations.
It further said Project Engineer Hugh Peru explained that the new plant, is unique in the sense that it is a containerised baseload facility. “We’re accustomed to having a facility where all the engines are in one engine room, but with this one, we have three containerised units which are designed for baseload. The residents of Essequibo will definitely be experiencing improved power supply,” he explained.
