The Turkish power ship to provide relief to GPL is to begin its journey this morning to Everton on the Berbice River where it is to be hooked up to the power grid.
This was stated yesterday by acting Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Chief Executive Officer, Kesh Nandlall.
The power ship arrived from Cuba on Wednesday and had been moored off of the Demerara River.
Nandlall answered in the affirmative when asked yesterday whether GPL would meet the May 8th date which was given for the hooking up of the ship to the power grid.
GPL staffers have been clearing the site at Everton to enable the power shop to manouevre easily in the area.
On its Facebook page yesterday, GPL said that in order to facilitate the construction of the 69kv Transmission Line required to dispatch electricity from the power ship to GPL’s grid, customers from Islington to Maria, East Bank Berbice will experience an interruption in power supply today, Saturday, May 4, 2024, from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM.
On May 1 the power ship, which was rented to supply 36 megawatts (MW) of power to GPL, arrived in Guyana’s waters. A statement issued by the power company announced that the ship will be stationed at Everton, Berbice, and connected to GPL’s grid at 69 kV.
Preparatory work at the site has already begun to facilitate the power ship’s presence and connection to GPL’s grid, and according to the company’s Communications Officer Natalie Pindar, officials will be visiting the project site today.
“The contract includes the provision of operation and maintenance services as part of the agreement…The contract requires GPL to pay UCI a fee of 6.62 US cents per kWh as a monthly charter fee for the power ship and a monthly operation and maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per kWh, based on electricity generated,” GPL said in a statement on April 18th as it pointed to the US$1 million mobilisation fee.
The government has said that there will be no additional charge to consumers from the ship.
GPL has been blasted for rolling blackouts because of a shortfall in power and frequent transmission and distribution issues.
Priority funding
Meanwhile, Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday revealed that the government is prepared to provide emergency priority funding of US$180 million to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) for transmission and distribution upgrades.
During a Q&A segment of his weekly press conference, Jagdeo explained that the funding is crucial to support various components of the project, including the evacuation of power from the planned gas to power plant to the control centre and extending power to Vreed en Hoop on the West Demerara.
“Part of the distribution component, that is from the power plant, we have already awarded a contract to evacuate the power from the power plant to the control centre, which would be built at Eccles to bring the power across and also to take some of the power to Vreed en Hoop,” he said.
The VP also mentioned plans to build a transmission system to distribute power along the Linden highway and ensure the reliability of the distribution system by replacing transformers.
“So, there are several substations and the transmission… as part of that component, and the contract has been awarded to an Indian company… that component should be completed, along with the pipeline component of the project, at the end of this year. So that will get power to the control centre which is being built now, a separate component of the project. We also said there are two other components of this project outside of those five that are crucial. One is to take, to build a transmission… to take our cylinder, and with a substation to allow distribution of some of the power along the highway to electrify the communities along the highway. So that complement we’ve already drafted the request for proposal,” he explained.
Further, Jagdeo assured that the government is ready to finance the project immediately, either through the budget or a loan. Regardless of the funding source, he emphasized the need for parliamentary approval for expenditures.
“It could be that, it could be that or we could get it financed from a loan. Okay, but even if it’s financed from a loan,… you still have to get the expenditure cleared in Parliament. So, we do have to go back for supplementary,” the VP noted.
Jagdeo further stressed the importance of completing the upgrades before the middle of the year to facilitate the distribution of power and the determination of grid load. He also highlighted the possibility of private sector financing, noting that private sources could offer lower interest rates compared to multilateral sources.
Citing examples of loans from the Islamic Development Bank, he noted that loans could be acquired at 5.9% interest and suggested that private sector borrowing rates could potentially be below 5%.
“We have to get it done in time for the distribution of the power and moving to determine the grid load. There are several sources now, we can probably go private now. As I said to you before, we’re finding now that the private sources of funding are cheaper than the multilateral sources. And I pointed this out, that two loans; the Islamic Development Bank loan is like 5.9% for the Linden highway. The interest is five 5.9%. In the private sector we may be able to borrow below 5%.
