GPL aiming to hook up power ship’s 60 MW before Christmas – Nandlall

The power ship (Office of the Prime Minister photo)
The power ship (Office of the Prime Minister photo)

With time running out, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) yesterday said it is hustling to connect 60 megawatts to the national grid from a power ship moored in the Demerara River.

Kesh Nandlall, acting CEO of Guyana Power and Light (GPL), spoke to Stabroek News (SN) yesterday, providing an update on the company’s ongoing efforts to connect the second power ship to the national grid. Nandlall said that GPL is making final preparations to complete the connection before Christmas, with testing scheduled for yesterday afternoon and last night.

“We are completing the connections today and testing, we’re doing the testing today and tonight, so we are hoping, as we promised, we will connect before Christmas…the Prime Minister was here this morning and had a walkthrough,” Nandlall said.

Connections for the power ship (Office of the Prime Minister photo)

He also addressed an outage that occurred earlier yesterday, explaining that it was linked to the final connection at the pump station. “We had an outage this morning at the Substation, customers were affected but that was to do the final connection onto the pump station,” Nandlall explained.

Prime Minister Mark Phillips’ site visit, announced through a statement on the Prime Minister’s Facebook page, focused on ongoing efforts to connect the power ship to Guyana’s national grid. Speaking with SN, the PM said “The works are in the final stages and the power ship will be connected and start supplying the 60 MW of electricity, as promised for Christmas.”

The delegation included Antonio Neto, Director of UCC Americas; and technical teams from both GPL and Kalpataru Projects International Limited (KPIL). During the visit, they inspected the progress of the project, which is set to significantly boost the country’s electricity supply.

The power ship, connected to the grid by a 3.9-kilometre double-circuit line supported by 22 structures, will initially provide 60 megawatts of power. In its second phase, an additional 15 megawatts will be added, further bolstering the national grid. This infrastructure will supply electricity to the New Georgetown substation, with additional distribution to the Sophia substation.

Phillips expressed optimism about the project’s timeline and progress, describing it as “a commendable effort.” He noted that the team was on target to meet the project’s goal of having the power ship connected and operational by Christmas. “Based on the briefing I received this morning, we are on target. Soon we’ll be connecting the ship, and the power will be available as planned for Christmas,” he said.

While acknowledging the inconvenience caused by controlled power outages during the testing phase, the Prime Minister reassured the public that these measures were necessary for connecting and testing the power ship.

“We ask for the public’s patience, especially those affected by power outages. This is a controlled power outage to ensure that we connect and test the system. The goal is to provide more reliable electricity for everyone,” he stated.

He also praised the efforts of GPL and KPIL for their swift execution of the project, noting that it was on track to be completed within its six-week timeframe. The remaining steps include final connections, engine startups, and testing.

Addressing concerns about managing the additional power supply, Phillips expressed full confidence in GPL’s ability to handle the new power source. He highlighted the experience of senior GPL personnel, who have been involved in the project from its inception and will continue to oversee the distribution process. Drawing on the success of the 36-megawatt power setup in Berbice, he reassured the public that the team was fully equipped to manage and distribute the new energy supply.

On December 12th, SN reported that GPL provided an update on the construction of a new 69 kV double-circuit transmission line. The line, which stretches approximately 3.9 kilometers from Ruimveldt, where the power ship is docked, to GPL’s New Georgetown Substation, is a key component of the effort to integrate the second power ship into the grid.

The ongoing work is part of a broader government initiative to address the power sector’s reliability issues, which have resulted in frequent outages and widespread public dissatisfaction. President Irfaan Ali has stressed the importance of significant improvements in GPL’s service delivery by the end of the first quarter of 2024. “I’ve made it very clear to the management of GPL that if we don’t see marked improvement by the end of January, we will start looking for the type of improvements I expect from GPL, then heads will roll,” President Ali stated on Friday.

The first power ship, deployed to the Berbice River in May 2024, has been supplying 36 megawatts of power to the Demerara-Berbice interconnected grid.