The Guyana Government yesterday signed a second deal for a powership which will see 75 megawatts (MW) of energy supplied in two phases.
With Heavy Fuel Oil to be used in this generation the government has been criticised for replying on carbon fuels instead of green energy in the context of climate change woes. The government’s management of the power supply system has also been questioned.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works. Deodat Indar yesterday oversaw the signing of the agreement between the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) and UCC Holdings.
A release from the Ministry of Finance said that the powership will be stationed in the Demerara River and will in its first phase, deliver 60 megawatts of generating capacity to the national grid while in its second phase, 15 additional megawatts of power will be delivered to the grid.
Signing the agreement at GPL’s Duke Street office were its Executive Management Committee Head Kesh Nandlall and Managing Director of the Americas, UCC Holdings Antonio Neto.
The value of the contract was not disclosed in the press release.
The powership will be the second one that Government, through GPL, has chartered to assist in offsetting generation shortfalls. The first was deployed to Guyana in May this year and stationed in the Berbice River through an agreement with the consortium. This has been supplying 36 megawatts of power to the Demerara to Berbice interconnected grid, the release said.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Singh said that Government will continue to supply the country’s growing demand in the short term as it continues to work on meeting the growing economy’s demands in the longer term through larger projects such as the Gas to Energy Project.
“President Ali’s instructions are very clear that in the first instance. we must meet the immediate demand for electricity, and where that means bringing in emergency power, we must bring in that emergency power. And secondly, we must make the investments that are needed for the medium- and longer-term demand that we will see for electricity,” the finance minister said.
“On the short-term side, you’ve seen the several sets we have brought in and commissioned since we came into office including the floating sets on the Berbice River concluded with the consortium, that powership is now supplying 36 megawatts of reliable power to the Demerara to Berbice interconnected system. But even at the time that we plugged in that ship we said very clearly that the demand will continue to grow and that we will need more power,” he stated.
The UCC Holdings Representative said that the company will be mobilizing as soon as possible to have the powership deployed to Guyana.
