Following the emergency shutdown of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Garden of Eden generating facility in January, the manufacturers of the engines have said that there were no findings to indicate any risk to personnel or equipment safety.
Mirja-Maija Santala, Manager of Marketing & Communications at the Finland-headquartered Wärtsilä told this newspaper stated that the shutdown of the power generating plant has since been lifted and all units are back online generating power for the national grid.
“Wärtsilä worked intensively and promptly in close cooperation with GPL to restore generation capability as quickly as possible. Units are fully operational today and providing power for the country… units [were] put back online quickly after reassembly without significant modifications or repairs,” she explained in an email response.
Stabroek News had reached out to the company seeking an explanation for the abrupt shutdown of the plant.
GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharrat Dindyal on Thursday told this newspaper that the company has received a report from Wärtsilä. He explained that engineers at the company are currently perusing its contents before seeking a meeting with the manufacturers to discuss the factors that contributed to the malfunctioning back in January.
Additionally, Santala emphasised that maintaining a safe and healthy workplace is priority for Wärtsilä, as it is for its suppliers and project stakeholders.
“Environmental, health and safety (EHS) related management systems are in place globally, conforming to the Wärtsilä QEHS (Quality, Environmental, Health and Safety) Policies. Wärtsilä has given its full attention to the incident at Guyana Power and Light’s Garden of Eden Generating facility and remains fully committed in supporting GPL,” she highlighted.
Dindyal had previously said that with all suspected causes discounted during the troubleshooting, the company was left with analyzing the data collected. He stated that as much as GPL is keen to understand what went wrong, Wärtsilä will have to pronounce on what occurred.
The performance of the generating units, Dindyal informed, is being constantly monitored by engineers from both Wärtsilä and GPL.
During the troubleshooting phase the engines were taken off the grid and inspected for deficiencies. In some instances fuel pumps and auxiliary systems were repaired and replaced.
The CEO also mentioned that they have now equipped the facility with an oil testing kit for day-to-day monitoring. On January 14, GPL announced that they were forced to shut down the plant over fears of a massive explosion subsequent to the detection of fuel in the exhaust of a generator.
Dindyal had previously explained that 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 to Houston, Texas. He disclosed that the results of the analysis showed that viscosity more than doubled and additives to neutralise acid in the lube oil were depleted by 50% to 60%.
Bharrat emphasised that the lube oil used on the engines is up to standard and that it has not contributed to the malfunctioning of the generators.
The utility company’s CEO previously noted that there is no issue with the fuel or lube oil as the same type and grade have 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.
