APAN Energy, which supplied 18 used generators from Honduras in 2023 to Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL), has told the utility that the generators would be fixed to the required specifications by the end of this month, Chief Executive Officer Kesh Nandlall said.
“They had represented that they will finish at the end of March,” Nandlall told Stabroek News when asked for an update.
He said that currently, the company is undertaking work on the generator sets, such as testing, to ensure all is well as they switch from using intermediate fuel oil (IFO) to heavy fuel oils (HFO).
According to Nandlall, given the current redundancy in the system as the two power ships are supplying all of the demand of the Demerara Berbice Interconnectivity Service (DBIS) areas, the company is maximising on the time to fix the engines.
The generators from Honduras had experienced several shipping delays. They were first expected here on November 22 and then December 5, before finally arriving on December 13, 2023.
In January this year, the GPL Head along with Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall had disclosed that GPL and APAN were in legal discussions as the utility company wanted to leverage liquidated damages for late delivery of the engines.
“The matter is being reviewed by external counsel, London House Chambers, at the request of GPL with instructions to claim liquidated damages and compensation for any breach of contract established. London House Chambers have already made contact with APAN’s counsel in pursuance thereof,” the AG had stated.
When the GPL CEO was asked if the company’s signalled readiness to have the gensets working by the end of this month meant that the legal matter was no longer ongoing, he replied, “I did not say that. I said that they had represented that they will finish at the end of March.”
During his 2024 end-of-year press conference, President Irfaan Ali had informed that he and his cabinet had told GPL that once this country pays for a service and delivery and it was not met, “action must be taken.” He had said that Nandlall was charged with overseeing the process and that action had already commenced. “All the issues surrounding what happened are being dealt by the AG, performance, every single thing,” the President said.
The deal to acquire used generators from Honduras to ease power woes in the approach to Christmas 2023 had been heavily criticised.
The Attorney General gave an overview leading up to the stalemate between the two sides over payment.
“APAN was contracted to install a 28.9MW HFO Power Generation Plant at Columbia, Mahaicony, consisting of 17 generators pursuant to a Turnkey Engineering, Procurement and Construction Agreement dated July 27, 2023, to provide emergency power to the grid. Unfortunately the contractor stated that they were unable to meet the contractual time-frame stipulated because of circumstances over which they had no control, including delay in shipping as a result of industrial unrest that affected operations in the Panama Canal,” he said.
“Sixteen of the seventeen generators have been installed and are operational. An additional generator is scheduled to come on stream shortly and this will meet the full complement of the contracted generational capacity. The process of a transition from LFO to HFO is ongoing and the contractor has undertaken that this process will be completed by the end of March 2025,” he added.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of GPL Kesh Nandlall (the brother of the Attorney General) also told this newspaper that the company was contracted to deliver HFO gensets and had brought in LFO ones, which it said would be retrofitted to HFO but that process took longer than the contracted delivery time. He said that the generators were all functional but the issue was the timeframe for delivery.
Amid constant blackouts caused by increased electricity consumption and a generator being out for maintenance, GPL procured 17 reconditioned containerised generators from Honduras in 2023, saying it was preparing to ensure continuous power for the 2023 Christmas holiday season.
Last year, GPL had to seek more generating help via two power ships. It is those ships that continue to power the DBIS.
