Government yesterday delivered on its promise to provide a ‘bright’ Christmas to Berbicians with the commissioning of the Diesel Generating Plant (DGP) which is part of the Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project (SSMP) and which will supply 6.4 megawatts of power to the Berbice grid.
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud switched on the power that has reached the homes of Berbicians who will hopefully say goodbye to the blackout blues that have been plaguing them recently.
The minister said the plant would be producing 10 megawatts of power but the Guyana Power & Light Inc does not have the capacity to accommodate the full amount. But he said the company would work to correct that.
He said the installation and testing of the plants had been successfully completed last Thursday and that Berbicians, including businesspersons and schoolchildren who had been affected by blackouts would now have a reliable supply of electricity.
He said the sugar factory was due to be completed in February and had been proceeding on schedule despite some “hiccups.” But he was concerned that the agricultural aspect of the project was behind and that there would not be sufficient sugar cane to supply to the factory which had the capacity to process 10,000 tonnes of cane.
He said 4,000 hectares of sugar cane would come from Guysuco and another 4,000 from the farmers. By next year, he said, only 30% of the factory would be utilized.
In his address, Vice President of China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation, Guodong Zhang, said, “The project is an important milestone in the construction of Skeldon Sugar Modernisation Project.”
He said the achievement came “from almost three-and-a-half years’ hard work” and despite encountering numerous setbacks and difficulties, “we still managed to complete the design, procurement, installation and commissioning of the DGP and its auxiliary systems.”
He also said “while we are jubilant for today’s achievement, we are fully aware of the hard work ahead of us. We keep in our minds the most difficult periods that we had gone through and are prepared to deal with any eventualities that may arise.”
Zhang promised to “continue to make our best efforts, but we need help, assistance and sincere cooperation from the engineers, Booker Tate, Guysuco and the Government of Guyana, as the final success of the SSMP rests on the joint contributions to be made by all parties.”
He said Christmas was an auspicious festival in Guyana and he was glad that the operations of the DGP “would wipe out the constant fears of blackout in this region and make this Christmas brighter and more cheerful.”
The three Finland-made Wartsila diesel generators have a total capacity of 10,000 kilowatts (KW), two of which consist of 2,500 KWs each and the other, 5,000 KWs.
Zhao Zhengxiang, senior engineer and construction manager of China National Trade Import/Export Corporation which is undertaking the project, had told Stabroek News that the generators would use “heavy fuel” which would go into a large “long-term oil storage tank” that has a capacity of 220 cubic metres. From there it would then be pumped into a smaller tank of about 35 cubic metres.
He said because the heavy fuel is “sticky” a “fully automatic oil-fired steam start boiler” that is attached to the small tank heats the fuel to allow it to flow freely to the generators. The fuel also has to go through a filter process to get rid of “foreign materials” which can damage the machines.
General Manager of the Skeldon Estate, Vishnu Panday who chaired the ceremony promised to “do all it takes to ensure the success” of the project. He observed that the invitees “are few in numbers but the reality of the occasion is that it would be touching hundreds of homes
