With two of the five newly installed generators at the Guyana Power and Light’s Garden of Eden facility up and running, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bharrat Dindyal said they are scheduled to conduct an assessment today to determine the cause of recent problems.
The assessment will test a theory to ascertain whether lube oil is being contaminated with fuel.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday afternoon, the CEO said that the engineers have recalibrated one of the dismantled engines after changing out the fuel injectors and other parts. That generator and one that only underwent an oil change were brought online a few days ago.
According to Dindyal with these two generators now testing at full capacity, engineers will be conducting checks. The results of these tests will further aid the engineers in pinpointing the root cause of the generators malfunctioning.
The utility company’s CEO added that there is no issue with the fuel or lube oil as the same type and grade has been procured to be used across the country.
“Since [19]93 we have been using the Shell brand of lube oil and grade at the generators across the country at Kingston, Sophia, Berbice… As a matter of fact some years ago we tried to use the Texaco brand but we had to immediately revert to Shell… so it is not a fuel or oil issue,” he explained.
Additionally, Dindyal said that an executive team from the Finland-based manufacturer of the generators, Wärtsilä, has been in constant contact with the engineers here working along with them to identify the issue.
Last Monday, Stabroek News reported that more Wärtsilä engineers had arrived in the country with the aim of resolving the issue. The team of Technical Service engineers will work along with the engineers who arrived earlier to diagnose the issue. 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.
Wärtsilä, 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.
Three weeks 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 several weeks 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%.
