GPL yesterday accused the local company which had been managing its generators of using cheaper parts which then required early replacement.
The statement from the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) was in response to claims by former Minister of Public Infrastruc-ture David Patterson in a May 4th news item in Kaieteur News and it also lifted a veil over the concerns that Finnish company, Wartsila had been replaced as the generator manager by local company, PPDI.
When it was announced in October, 2018 that Power Producers and Distribution Inc. (PPDI) would be taking over the management of Wartsila generators from the Finnish manufacturers, concerns were raised as to whether the level of service would be maintained.
GPL yesterday rejected Patterson’s claim that PPDI had been up to standard and that the PPP/C government had targeted its managers in August 2020 because their salaries were too high.
GPL in its statement yesterday said “during the 20 + years that Wartsila had the Operation and Maintenance Contract with GEC/GPL, the various power plants maintained an availability above 98%. Their Maintenance Programme was rigid and utilized only Original Equipment Manufacturer spares. Contrary to what former Minister Patterson asserts, the use of alternate spares came after PPDI was given the Contract in 2016 and continued until 2021 when GPL discovered this breach of the Contract. The use of cheaper off the market spares allowed PPDI to realize healthy profits while GPL had to pay for the early replacement of the major components.
“Earlier this year, PPDI had to cut invoices submitted for replacement parts used since 2018. It turned out that these are some of the off-market spares that failed prematurely that GPL was being asked to pay to replace.
“Patterson seems to have bought the Salesman pitch that you can buy superior
spares cheaper directly from the Manufacturers. This is an old strategy used by folks walking around with suits and briefcases.
“It is known that Wartsila utilizes many Suppliers of components for its power
plants. The Quality Assurance/Quality Control regime Wartsila employs is world class, and very often, the components/ parts supplied directly to users do not meet the same rigid standards. The result is a component that should last 48,000 service hours has to be changed at 24,000 service hours. GPL was paying for this between 2015 and 2020 under Patterson’s watch”, GPL declared.
In the KN news item, Patterson said: “It was found by 2015 that despite Wartsila producing excellent engines, their maintenance programme was lacking and substandard, this was changed which resulted in the new sets performing at 98 percent efficiency this was all reversed in August 2020. All the senior managers of PPDI [Power Producer and Distribution Incorporated] were fired or contracts not renewed because the former government claimed that they were earning super salaries but they were all Guyanese; some had been with Wartsila since they first came to Guyana, and despite that fact, the company was saving GPL more than 20 percent of what they were paying in 2015.”
Patterson also told KN that “The Board started procuring spare parts directly from the best manufacturers because what was discovered was that before 2015, GPL was being supplied with substandard replacement parts by a small group of suppliers who were buying cheap inferior parts which were being damaged easily; it was a big racket. We put a stop to that practice and began purchasing in bulk from the best manufacturers worldwide which is cheaper and long lasting in the long run.”
He said further that with GPL’s increased capacity of the local Transmission and Distribution (T&D) maintenance teams, coupled with the improved spares, they had a rigid maintenance schedule for all the high voltage transmission lines.
“The end result was the total system failure, as is happening now, was reduced drastically.”
Consequently, Patterson said that PPDI was formed and took over the maintenance contract from Wartsila.
He said, “We hired all of the staff, plus more Guyanese that worked with Wartsila and other power plants internationally returned the cost saving to GPL was around 20 percent of the maintenance costs as against what was being charged beforehand this saving was put directly into purchasing more spares for our plants and training more engineers, by 2020 the staffing of PPDI was more than 120 local engineers and other professionals.”
In its statement yesterday, GPL also contended that generation-related
problems contribute to less than 2% of outages, resulting
mainly from feeder trips, network switching, planned maintenance, and
accidents involving vehicles and equipment. It said that the investments needed to modernize Transmission and Distribution are significant, and GPL is currently finalizing a Request for Proposals to automate the entire system while a complete upgrade is being done. It would take approximately eighteen months to complete the T&D maintenance that accumulated since 2017 due to the inadequacy of the maintenance programme.
GPL said that it is a fact that since last year heavy equipment operated by contractors have caused almost 60% of all shutdowns.
“Since the last shutdown, occasioned by heavy equipment less than two weeks ago, we have had two more incidents, one where we intervened and prevented a trip and another which caused the shutdown of the Edinburgh Substation, interrupting power to thousands of customers”, GPL said.
The statement did not say what action will be taken against the culpable contractors.
