Still working to pinpoint why newly installed generator sets at the Garden of Eden plant malfunctioned, more Wärtsilä engineers have arrived in the country with the aim of resolving the issue, Guyana Power and Light Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bharat Dindyal said yesterday.
He explained that the team of Technical Service engineers will work along with the engineers who arrived earlier to diagnose the issue.
Last week, the team of engineers was close to determining the cause for the generators absorbing fuel into the exhaust but operations had to be halted as some team members tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. Among those who tested positive is the Automation Engineer, who the CEO said is responsible for bringing the engines back online. Those positive are scheduled to be retested today and once clear will return to work.
The work area was fumigated and sanitised, he explained further.
The engineers who arrived in the country yesterday will continue working from where the previous team left off. These engineers, Stabroek News was told, have a deeper understanding of how the engines operate and should be able to determine the cause of the generators malfunctioning.
According to Dindyal, they are hoping to bring two of the engines back on line during the course of today. He explained that since the engines have been down they have either replaced or serviced parts that were affected by contaminated lube oil. All five of the generators were affected by the lube oil.
When the engines are recalibrated and are back online the expatriate engineers will monitor their performance. This will allow the engineers to test their theories and determine the root cause of the problem.
Wärtsilä, a Finnish company is currently bound to an operate and maintenance agreement with GPL which was clinched in 2019. As such the agreement will cover fixing problems with the engines which are still under warranty with the support of GPL engineers.
GPL has reverted to its old generators to meet the electricity demand.
Two Fridays ago, fearing a massive explosion after the detection of fuel in the exhaust of a generator, GPL shut down its Garden of Eden power plant on the East Bank of Demerara, resulting in the loss of 46.5 MWs. As a consequence, load shedding started that night.
Dindyal had stressed that the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution.”
The CEO explained that about a month ago the company’s technicians and engineers at the facility noticed the elevated temperatures on all of the generators, causing them to suspect something was amiss. He stated that the temperatures were about 2°C above normal.
Having consulted with engineers of the Finnish manufacturer, Dindyal said GPL made a decision to send samples of the lube oil for analysis in Houston, Texas. He stated that the results of the analysis showed that viscosity more than doubled and additives to neutralize acid in the lube oil were depleted by 50% to 60%.
The detection, he emphasized, led to the complete shutdown of the facility, thereby removing its power from the national grid.
The five Wärtsilä generators can each generate 9.3 MW of power. The total cost for the generators is just over US$50m.
