-despite rebuff by parliament committee chair
Prime Minister Mark Phillips on Thursday convened a meeting of members of parliament, private sector representatives and executives of GPL to provide an update on the power supply.
A release yesterday from the Office of the Prime Minister stated that the meeting provided an opportunity for a comprehensive update by GPL’s executive management on the company’s current capacity and its short- to long-term measures for reliable energy supply.
GPL’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Kesh Nandlall, explained that the number of customers grew from around 140,000 in 2008 to over 227,000 currently, with a total annual gross generation increasing from 600 million megawatt-hours (MWh) to 1.2 billion MWh and the peak demand growing from 73.5 megawatts (MW) to 186.4 for that period.
According to Nandlall, in order to meet the rising demand, the utility company is making efforts to increase its generation capacity to address the current peak demand of 180 MW as of April 2024. He pointed out that in order to sustain system stability, the company has to maintain a spinning reserve of 14 MW, which requires an availability of 194 MW at the current peak demand.
He informed that currently, the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System has an available capacity of 177 MW, including 20 MW from the Columbia plant, which has a total capacity of 28.9 MW. Once fully operational, this plant will function at 85 per cent capacity by the end of April. He noted that GPL’s capacity will be further boosted with the arrival of a 36 MW net capacity power ship, which will come online at Everton, Berbice, in May. These additions will bring approximately 218 MW of firm generation capacity.
The release also added that it is expected a 6.9 MW generation unit will be added in May, while in July, a 5.5 MW generation unit will come online at Kingston after maintenance, making an estimated total of 230.4 MW available to GPL.
Meanwhile, Minister within the Minister of Public Works, Deodat Indar, in his remarks, highlighted the government’s commitment and explained that the power ship that was recently acquired will provide a total capacity of 36 MW for a period of two years. He also noted that GPL will pay UCI a fee of 6.62 US cents per kWh as a monthly charter fee for the power ship and a monthly operations and maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per kWh, based on the electricity generated.
Indar reiterated Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s position that tariffs from the utility company will not increase, thereby insulating consumers from an added financial burden.
Meanwhile, based on demand estimates, the government plans to procure an additional 30 to 40 MW by the end of 2024, while the Gas-to-Energy project will add another 300 MW in two phases by the end of 2025.
Members of the APNU+AFC parliamentary opposition were notably absent from the meeting, including the current Chairman of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Economic Services, Shurwayne Holder, who had requested that the meeting occur.
Holder had rebuffed the invitation issued by Indar to attend this meeting. In his reply to the invitation, the Committee Chairman had reminded that the Economic Services Committee had made a unanimous decision to request that officials with responsibility for policy and administration of GPL appear before the committee on May 8, 2024, and he went on to list the following three reasons why the Committee members would not be attending the meeting.
1) The invitation is in contravention of the decision of the Economic Services Committee as stated above. 2) The request is inappropriate because Parliamentary protocol and practice dictate that it is the Economic Services Committee which summons witnesses and not the reverse. And 3) Such a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office will not allow a public hearing and the recording of the Parliamentary proceedings.
“In view of the above, I, as Chairman of the Economic Services Committee cannot attend such a meeting, it added.”
The letter concluded by stating that if the Prime Minister was willing to speak to the Committee about GPL, as the invitation indicates, then the Chairman will raise it with the Committee so that he (Prime Minister) could be formally invited. “Notwithstanding, the Prime Minister can indicate when he would be available to appear before the committee,” it stated.
