GPL yesterday took possession of five generators from Finland which will boost its capacity by 46.5 Megawatt (MW) but the generation plant at Garden of Eden will not be commissioned until April next year.
The five Wärtsilä generators, each of which has the capacity to generate 9.3 MW of power, were cleared from the John Fernandes Wharf and are to be transported on barges to the Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) generating facility at Garden of Eden, on the East Bank of Demerara. Since the plant won’t be commissioned until April next year, GPL in August this year issued invitations for the supply of 25 MW of emergency power amid mounting power outages.
GPL yesterday invited the media to witness the arrival of the new hybrid generators at the Water Street wharf but the event never occurred. Members of the media waited for over an hour without any update from GPL. Prime Minister Mark Phillips along with Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, were also expected to witness the arrival of the engines but they did not show up.
Fuel tanks have also arrived for the generators and are expected to be installed shortly. State-owned GPL is currently constructing a new state-of-the-art power generation plant, which will increase supply and reduce power outages. The project is pegged at US$52 million. A commissioning deadline has been set for April 2021 as major infrastructural works have to be done.
In October, Phillips was given a tour of the facility which is currently under construction. Ryon Ross, Divisional Director of Engineering Services had explained then that the power plant will be a dual fuel power generator. He stated that with the expectation of Guyana tapping into natural gas extraction, the power plant is built to work with both Heavy Fuel Oil and natural gas.
The old power generation plant has been costing the company a large amount of money. He noted, too, that with the generators being old, they are no longer efficient and finding spare parts at times can be difficult. The generation plant was constructed in the 1970s and is equipped with engines that are over 26 years old.
Ross had said that the power supply company does not plan on abandoning the old power plant when the new one comes on stream as they will need all the electricity generated for the national grid.
Ross told the Prime Minister that while they are accustomed to seeing a high demand for power on the East Coast, in Georgetown and some sections of the East Bank of Demerara, they have noticed an increase in demand in areas such as Kuru Kururu and along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. He explained that this demand is not surprising since more people are constructing and occupying lands in those areas. With that, he said that the new power plant will aid the company in meeting its demand.
In June 2019, GPL’s Chief Executive Officer Albert Gordon had committed to providing more reliable power supply by the end of 2020.
Gordon at a press conference had noted that the frequency at which a customer should lose power due to a loss in generation should be 0.5% and committed to giving customers a 99.5% level of reliability from the generation system, which translates into having a higher reserve margin.
“The distribution system was falling apart in some areas and the project is really about rehabilitation and reconfiguration but there are still generation and transmission aspects and at some point we will be regularly breaking out these projects,” he explained.
