Citizens will likely face another 45 days of load shedding as GPL says relief generators from Honduras won’t be operational until mid-December.
The Guyana Power & Light Inc. (GPL) has been de-energizing some distribution feeders daily, during peak demand periods to prevent total system shutdowns.
Amid broad public outrage over the shortfall, GPL in a press release yesterday acknowledged the inconvenience these service interruptions are causing and assured customers that the situation will ease in mid-December, since the utility has begun acquiring additional power generation.
GPL reiterated that currently the daily peak demand has been surpassing its existing generation capabilities and “in order to prevent total system shutdowns resulting from insufficient generation, the company has been temporarily de-energizing some distribution feeders daily during peak demand periods to maintain grid stability”.
The state-owned power company in the statement said that “regrettably these service disruptions are driven by the daily monitoring of generation during peak demand”.
GPL reminded that on September 29, 2023 that it reached a historic peak in electricity demand whereas an unprecedented 182 megawatts (MWs) was recorded.
“This situation is not unique to GPL as countries in the Caribbean have recorded significant increases in demand due to rising temperatures in the region”, the release highlighted.
GPL’s Development and Expansion Plan 2023-2027 projected 186.6 megawatts in 2023, however the company began acquiring additional generation through public tenders early this year., given this demand projection.
This process resulted in the procurement of 28.9 MWs of generation as an interim solution in anticipation of the 300 MW natural gas Power Plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
According to the utility this supplementary generation will become operational in mid-December, which is expected to bolster GPL’s ability to meet its increased demand.
Up to last evening, customers from Main Road New Amsterdam to Kortberaad, Albert Street, Robb Street, Albertown, Bourda, Cummingsburg, Industrial Site to Nandy Park and surrounding communities experienced an interruption in power amid an advisory from GPL which stated that should the demand exceed its generation capacity, these communities will be affected.
The power company reminded that this was necessary to ensure the continued stability of the grid and prevent a complete shutdown.
Over three years after the PPP/C took the reins of office more questions are being raised as to why it has not been able to get on top of power generation failures and shortfalls.
Stabroek News yesterday visited the Prime Minister’s office for an update on GPL but was told by a senior employee that he was away on government business.
In recent days, members of the public have complained incessantly about the outages. University students and lecturers complained that these unscheduled disruptions have resulted to significant delays in work programmes.
Notably those who conducted online meetings, group presentations or webinars felt the brunt of the power disruption by the company.
One businessman who owns a printery said that the constant power outages have damaged his uninterrupted power supply (UPS).
“Because of this I had to replace another one (UPS) because I cannot afford for my business to be disrupted”, he lamented
President Irfaan Ali recently asserted that under the APNU+AFC coalition government, there was a lack of maintenance on the transmission lines coupled with little or no investment in baseload generation capacity which are the main reasons for the blackouts currently being experienced.
He said if the 2013 Amaila Falls Hydropower project had materialized, Guyana’s power generation capacity would have been supplemented by 165 megawatts which may have placed the country in a better position.
But former Public Works Minister David Patterson said that “If the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) had stuck to a proposed plan that would have seen it add between 20 to 25 megawatts of power annually to the grid, it would not be in the “dilemma” it is in and rushing to buy reconditioned generator sets to meet increased demands”.
He contended that “knowing that the country was on a trajectory to decrease the use of heavy fuels, the generator sets would have been dual powered to allow for the changeover, instead of continuing with HFO usage, as will be the case with the 17 used generators GPL said it was procuring from Honduras”.
“They used a power generating study we had left to justify the gas to power project. However, that same study showed that we needed 20MW to 25MW per annum since 2018, to keep with normal average demand. As a good government they should have put measures in place to have at least 15 to 20 [MW] per year, up to this point and to keep up with the demand “, he further said.
In September, GPL had called for the conservation of electricity in the face of a big spike in demand linked to cooling needs because of the increasingly high temperatures.
In an advertisement in the Stabroek News, the company had recorded a peak demand of 182 megawatts (MW) compared to 154 MW for the corresponding period last year.
It said that the rise in temperature has led to the heightened use of air conditioning units and fans and in some instances, these are left switched on in homes and businesses that are unoccupied.
GPL observed then that the situation was not unique to Guyana as Trinidad and Tobago had registered its highest ever electricity consumption in August.
