Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) CEO Bharrat Dindyal says that the US$20 million proposed to be spent to solve the country’s power woes will be used to expand the local generation system by 15.6 MW.
Dindyal said that the plan for this additional investment was on the agenda since late last year, and it was confirmed by a recent study financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He said that about two months ago, a definite decision was made to pursue the investment to achieve this additional capacity.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, while delivering the feature address at the Guyana Labour Union’s (GLU) Congress on Wednesday evening, said the government will have to spend US$20 million on a new power plant prior to the Amaila Falls hydropower project coming into operation.
Last December, a US$27.5 million power station at Kingston was commissioned, adding 20.7 megawatts to the generation capacity of GPL. It boosted the current capacity to 83 megawatts which more than covered last year’s Christmas demand, which the company anticipated would be as high as 78 megawatts.
With the commissioning of that plant, Guyanese were assured that their power generation problems were over. Recently there has been a spate of blackouts across areas of the country.
Last week there were severe power problems in the system with two aged converters at Sophia going down simultaneously with a feeder.
During a tour of the power plant in October last year, while the city was grappling with constant blackouts, GPL chairman Winston Brassington had said confidently that blackouts due to generating capacity would end with the commissioning of the new plant. At that time there had been no publicized plans for another US$20 million to be invested to improve generating capacity.
According to Dindyal, the company will be moving to acquire new and reliable engines, thereby ensuring that all the power generated would come from heavy fuel-oil fired engines.
These engines, he said, will not only offer reliable power but would also ensure that generation is done at a reduced cost.
