COVID-19 travel restrictions have hampered necessary scheduled maintenance of the year-old multi-million dollar power generation plant at Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast, de facto Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson says.
Patterson provided the explanation while refuting reports from the region that the power plant has started to experience mechanical issues.
Patterson’s ministry under the APNU+AFC had commissioned a 5.4 megawatt (MW) power plant which was constructed at an estimated cost of $1.81 billion. The power plant, which was commissioned last year April was seen as the solution to coastal Essequibo’s power woes.
In an invited comment, Patterson explained that one of the three MAN power generation units requires servicing and maintenance and as a result they have reduced its operating hours.
He explained that under the purchasing agreement there is an active warranty which provides for the maintenance and servicing to be done by an engineer from the manufacturer.
“One of the engines require servicing and to do this we require the company’s engineers to be here. Because of COVID-19 we cannot have them here. There are no commercial flights and it is going to be expensive if they are to charter an entire plane for just three engineers,” Patterson explained and indicated that if the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) undertakes the servicing themselves, they would void the warranty.
According to him, GPL has put temporary measures in place to limit power outages by deploying mobile Caterpillar power generation units to the region to cushion the shortfall.
“During the peak hours we require about 5.5 megawatts of electricity but GPL have indicated to me that they have sent the mobile caterpillar engines to the region. With those units and the two functioning generators we have enough power for the region,” the de facto minister assured.
Patterson also underscored that the recently-commissioned power generators at the Bartica Power Plant and Canefield, East Canje, Berbice, also require maintenance but because of COVID-19 travel measures, servicing will also have to be pushed back.
A source at the Anna Regina Power Plant explained to this newspaper, that the company has indicated that their engineers will be available the earliest by mid-August.
“The COVID-19 travel restriction have resulted in the maintenance delay because the borders are closed and their borders will now open in August. We have all the materials available but we have to wait on them. They have to do the maintenance works,” the source explained. He stated that in addition to the sales and purchase agreement warranty, it is new technology which requires GPL engineers to be trained to execute maintenance work.
The source, like Patterson, refuted reports that the generator is down due to mechanical issues and explained that the plant after operation for a number of hours continuously requires maintenance.
“The generator plant can still work but we do not want to overwork it. It has reached the stage where it has to be serviced. They don’t want to have it overworked and then it (is damaged). We have turned it off and are working the mobile caterpillar generators,” the source, who is familiar with the work plan explained.
Asked about power outages in the region, the source noted that they have been minimal and the last load shedding recorded was over a week ago when there was a storm.
Power outages, he said, occurred during peak hours while they were transitioning to the mobile generators.
“We saw that during peak hours we had some interruptions but we asked some persons in the business community who have backup power to use their generators to allow us to have enough power to reach our demand,” the source added.
Meanwhile, Mayor of Anna Regina, Rajendra Prabhulall, told Stabroek News when contacted that the municipality has experienced some power outages in the last few weeks.
Nonetheless, he said that residents in the municipality are not severely affected as the outages are not prolonged.
“We have been having some power outages from what they say is because of the mechanical problems at the power plant. But it is not significant power outages to have effects on the business community. We do have blackouts but it is not prolonged. Different parts of the coast will experience a blackout at a different time of the day,” the Mayor said.
Project Engineer Hugh Peru at the commissioning had 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.
Patterson during the commissioning had said that the brand new sets at the plant have a life span of 20 years.
Power outages over the years have plagued the Essequibo coast due to the old generating plant being unable to supply the demand for electricity in the region.
