Dear Editor,
Mr. David Patterson seeks to divert attention from his failed ad hoc approaches to power generation in Guyana during his tenure as the Minister responsible for the sector. Instead of his knee-jerk reaction to issues, Mr. Patterson would do well to acquaint himself with the truth before he speaks to the salient issues surrounding electricity. Mr. Patterson made four main contentions: –
1) That the Government currently does not have a GPL Strategic Plan
2) That when the APNU Coalition Government took office that GPL did not have a Strategic Plan in Place
3) That the APNU Administration developed a plan and executed a number of projects to enhance the Generation capacity of GPL and improve the Transmission and Distribution Network
4) That these projects were completed without financing from any external loans.
Allow me to enlighten readers on the aforementioned matters.
1) That the Government currently does not have a GPL Strategic Plan – the current Government approved GPL’s Development and Expansion Plans for Years 2021 to 2025 and Years 2022 – 2026, and these are publicly available on GPL’s website. It is noteworthy that APNU, while in Government, failed to approve and publish the statutory Development and Expansion Plans for Years 2017 – 2021, Years 2018 – 2022, Years 2019 – 2023 AND Years 2020 – 2024. In fact the APNU only approv-ed and published a Develop-ment and Expansion Plan for Years 2016 – 2020. (Please refer to attached files).
2) That when the APNU coalition Government took office that GPL did not have a Strategic Plan in Place – these strategic plans referred in Mr. Patterson’s missive were clearly documented in the GPL published Development and Expansion plan, Year 2015-2019, and available on GPL’s website, published prior to the PPP demitting office in May 2015. These plans are also publicly available on GPL’s website https://gplinc. com/about-us/publications/. As an example, the extract below is from the GPL Strategic plan published under the previous PPP administration for Years 2015 to 2019. As can be clearly seen the plans outlined were similar to those expounded by Mr. Patterson. (Please refer to attached file).
1.6.1 GENERATION
Investment of US$20.4M to:
• Construct a new 5.2MW, 60Hz HFO fired power plant at Anna Regina.
• Convert the two, 2MW (4MW total) Wartsila Units at Anna Regina to 60Hz.
• Construct a new 5.1MW HFO fired power plant at Bartica with three (3) 1.7MW
Units, in two phases.
• Install a 1.2MW HFO fired Unit in Wakenaam. “It is projected that generation from renewable and HFO sources will increase to 97.9% in 2015 from 89% in 2014. Production from LFO fired capacity cost approximately 39% more than from HFO fired Units. The increase in HFO fired capacity and the introduction of this type of equipment in two of the three “island” operations in Esse-quibo would position GPL to minimize its generation cost”.
3) That the APNU Administration developed a plan and executed a number of projects to enhance the Generation capacity of GPL and improve the Transmission and Distribution Network – the major projects quoted by Mr. Patterson, for the upgrade of the transmission lines etc., were in fact birthed by the Donald Ramotar Administration with funding secured from the EU and the IDB in 2014 for the execution of the Power Utility Upgrade Programme (PUUP). Clearly, APNU took credit for the PUUP which contained the following components:
Component I – Strengthening GPL’s Management Capabilities
Component II – Operational Efficiency
Component III – Infrastructure Investments for Loss Reduction (Conductor Upgrading, Transformer rightsizing and replacement of aged transformers and meters).
Component III of the project was done in two (2) phases – Lot A and Lot B. The upgrade catered to rehabilitating 89 priority areas in Lot A and 87 priority areas in Lot B accounting for approximately 630 kilometers of medium and low voltage conductors in the distribution network. At the same time, the meter upgrade accounted for approximately 39,199 service upgrades using AMI compatible meters (Smart Meters). The network Upgrade was intended to reduce technical and commercial losses and improve reliability of service. Please refer to the attached link for details – https://gplinc.com/ power-utility-upgrade…/about-puup/
4) That these projects were completed without financing from any external loans – the significant reduction in world market fuel prices during the period of 2015 to 2016, allowed for the self-financing of these generation projects (Bartica, Anna Regina and Wakenaam). The reduction in fuel prices also allowed for a 15% fuel rebate and a 5% tariff reductions that customers benefitted from. The PPP government, led by President Ramotar, introduced a 5% fuel rebate in 2015 before demitting office. The financial records of GPL reveals a starkly different situation, at the time of APNU demitting office in August 2020. GPL’s loans had increased by more than G$21 billion.
This meant that in the five short years that APNU was in office, GPL’s debt increased by 65%. Also, the loans related to the IDB funded PUUP project were in fact from an external source contrary to the statement made by Mr. Patterson. In addition, when the PPP government returned to office in August 2020, GPL’s government receivables had increased by more than $10 billion. This was due to the APNU administration not ensuring the timely and full payment of the government’s electricity bills.
Sincerely,
Hon. Brigadier Mark Phillips
(Ret’d)
Prime Minister of the
Cooperative Republic of
Guyana