President Irfaan Ali yesterday read the “riot act” to stakeholders in the power sector over the continuing disruptions in supply and breakdown of equipment.
Minister in the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, who was present at the meeting at State House, told reporters on the sidelines of a United Airlines cocktail reception last evening that representatives of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Power Producers and Distributors Incorporated (PPDI) and Finnish company, Wärtsilä were read the riot act over the ongoing problems.
Indar said that “serious adjustments” would be coming but declined to say what exactly these would be.
The Minister told reporters last evening that 9 of the 17 used generators purchased for US$27m have been installed, six more would be in place shortly and the remaining two afterwards. These generators were supposed to have been in place since last year but were delayed by a series of problems including shipping. The purchase of these carbon fuels generators has also raised other questions.
In a statement, the Office of the President said that Ali met with the Board of Directors and management of GPL, PPDI and Wärtsilä at State House yesterday morning.
During the meeting, the statement said that the President expressed his dissatisfaction with the entity’s performance while acknowledging the myriad problems inherited, the exponential growth in demand, aged assets, and lack of redundancy in transmission.
A follow-up meeting was to be held by the President later in the day.
The statement said that it was important to note that the Government has already engaged UK Export Finance (UKEF) to explore financing options for the transmission.
Additionally, the President asked the utility company to consider alternative options to provide bridging energy to meet the demand while waiting for the completion of the gas-fired power plant.
The utility expects a further growth in demand this year of around 30MW, the statement said.
On Good Friday, there were protracted power outages due to system failures at GPL’s substations in Kingston, Georgetown, and Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara.
This was made known by Guyana Power and Light (GPL) System Control and Operations Manager, Navin Deonarayan, during a video update following the nationwide outage.
He informed that “at approximately 2.44 hours, GPL experienced a trip at the Kingston Power Plant due to a damaged cable.”
The GPL official stated that the emergency team worked assiduously towards the restoration of service but at 03.20 hours, while attempting to repower the affected areas, they experienced a system disturbance at that plant.
Deonarayan added that while this issue was being rectified at the Kingston substation, regrettably another shutdown occurred during the afternoon at the Garden of Eden location.
“That was investigated and we subsequently found what the issue was and we corrected it. We have powered back the entire system and we continue to supply the country with reliable power.”
The System Control and Operations Manager assured that they are working to avoid such recurrences
The power utility company in a release on Saturday confirmed that a team of technicians, upon subsequent examination discovered a severely damaged cable which affected the 69kV power transformer at Kingston. It noted that at the time, the Kingston facility was generating 44.9 megawatts (MW).
GPL informed that the loss in generation activated the protection systems at the other generation stations causing those generators to go offline, leading to a widespread outage. “Restoration recommenced and repair works thereafter. At approximately 5:07 hours, all areas were repowered.” It added, “Subsequently, at 17:55 hours, a second fault developed at the Kingston location, which de-energized the earlier repaired cable. At the time, the Kingston facility was generating a total of 40.4 MW.”
Consequently, service to customers in Demerara and Berbice was disrupted.
GPL reported that “following immediate attempts to repower, it experienced a trip at (the) Garden of Eden facility.” It informed that a team was dispatched to investigate the cause of the trip and institute corrective actions, and at 22.55 hours, all areas were repowered.
