In addition to the agreement signed with Qatari power company, UCC Holdings, which has a strategic alliance in Latin America for the Turkish Karpower ship, President Irfaan Ali yesterday announced that Cuba will assist with engineers to help manage the Guyana Power and Light’s electricity system.
“They have very skilled technical personnel who they are willing to deploy immediately to work in the system and to help us technically,” the President said in an address to the nation. He informed that following a meeting with Cuban Ambassador, Jorge Francisco Soberon Luis, Havana pledged to have 10 engineers urgently dispatched here.
Ali said that many times, government has sought local engineers but has “not been able to do that due to the demand for engineers.”
The President also clarified that the agreement for emergency generation to be supplied by the Turkish Karpowership will be signed with the Qatari power company, UCC, which holds strategic alliance in Latin America with the power generation vessel’s company. UCC is also behind the proposed hotel on Carifesta Avenue.
He repeated that his government inherited a power supply system that was not maintained and coupled with the growing power demand, it has been broken. However, he assured that he is not shying away from the responsibility of his administration to fix it, and in a holistic manner, in short, medium, and long term, it is being addressed.
The power generation vessel, he said, will be here in around 15 days and will be hooked up to the distribution system for the coast, but in the meantime, GPL is working around the clock to ensure the infrastructure is in place to allow for the smooth connection.
As GPL’s consumers across the country continue to grapple with the nearly daily blackouts, Vice Presi-dent Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday announced government was close to sealing a two-year deal with Turkish power supply company – Karpowership – for 36 megawatts from a ship to help offset peak demand.
The company that the two-year agreement will be signed with, he clarified yesterday, was UCC.
“We are focusing heavily on ensuring the current capacity we have is maximised. That involves bringing into production, some of the units that were bought and have not been brought online. They told me that hopefully by Saturday they should be able to get most of the equipment up and running again that will allow us to have the capacity based on peak demand,” he had stated.
“Simultaneously, a group of ministers… myself included… are working with a proposal that we have. Today, we are meeting with the company to supply emergency power. Hopefully, before the end of this week we can conclude this contract and have this vessel arrive in the country. And maybe two to three weeks later, that will see a significant injection of power into the grid in addition to what we have. We intend to contract this for two years until the gas-to-energy project is completed,” he added.
UCC’s website says “UCC Holding is a Qatari-based international Energy, Concession, and Construc-tion Company, distinguish-ed as a Grade A licensed builder. We have established a significant construction footprint in Qatar and the world, led by our ever-expanding team of highly skilled professionals.”
GPL’s Management Committee Head, Kesh Nandlall, said that the deal with the company came through a prior procurement notice the company had advertised. “We had advertised and it is part of that plan we got that through…,” he explained when contacted by Stabroek News.
Yesterday, Nandlall said that the advertisement referred to was not for the current procurement contract, as government has triggered the rules regarding emergency contracts from this country’s Pro-curement Act, but explain-ed that the company was used from the 2022 call for Expressions of Interest and supply of power generation to the grid tenderers.
Arisen
“As you are aware, the pursuit of additional megawatts supply of electricity was the subject of a public tender since 2022. A number of EoIs and bids were submitted, in response to that public tendering process. Those bids were evaluated and placed on file, as a decision was made then that it would not be necessary to enter into contracts at that time. It is now a matter of public notoriety that an emergency has arisen,” he said, referring to the frequent blackouts which last for protracted periods, caused by what GPL believes are both technical deficiencies and demand increases.
“This presented an emergency situation that required urgent action in the nation’s interest. A decision was taken to trigger the procurement process, to seek additional supply of generation. It was determined that the bids on file be revaluated to meet the emergency requirement. This was done and UCC was identified as the best option, based on cost, delivery and volume of generation available,” he added.
He noted that the requisite requirements, as per Guyana’s Public Procure-ment Act were activated and negotiations begun with the company, and assured that the laws will be followed throughout the process. “These are almost concluded and the contract is about to be signed with delivery in the timeframe indicated by the President,” he said.
President Ali said that in addition to the power sought, this country is still projecting a shortfall and will have to take additional steps.
“Whilst this facility will come in place, based on what we’re seeing, based on the projections, we have to go after more power but this facility gives us that room to make the investments in the aged infrastructure that we have to ensure that that infrastructure is brought on stream to support the demand for energy.”
