Prime Minister (Ret’d) Brigadier Mark Phillips yesterday announced that his government aims to utilise gas from offshore oil wells to generate close to 200 megawatts (MW) of power by December 2024.
Phillips made the announcement during a tour of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Garden of Eden power generation plant, where a massive expansion project is being undertaken.
“But we are looking at bringing gas to shore and that itself is a transformative project for Guyana. By the estimation of the studies so far the gas-to-shore project itself will increase the power [generation] by some 200MW from what we are getting now. So we will have an additional 200MW of power and December 2024 we will have that project completed in Guyana,” Phillips announced.
Studies have not yet been published on the financial feasibility of piping gas from offshore oil wells to shore for electricity generation.
State-owned GPL is currently constructing a 46.5MW power generation plant which will increase power generation and reduce power outages.
“A project like this and many other projects that we have plans for in the future will [help us] reach to a point where electricity will be 100% reliable and there will be no power outages…” Phillips asserted.
With a commissioning deadline set for April 2021, the US$52 milion project is said to be on schedule with the engines built by Finnish firm Wärtsilä expected to arrive by mid-November. In the meantime, work on the housing for the plant is also on schedule.
During the tour yesterday, Ryon Ross, Divisional Director of Engineering Services, explained that the power plant will be a state-of-the-art dual fuel power generator. He stated that with the expectation of Guyana tapping into natural gas extraction, the power plant is built to work with both Heavy Fuel Oil and gas.
According to the Divisional Director of Engineering Services, the old power generation plant has been costing the company a large amount of money. He noted too that with the generator being old it is no longer efficient and finding spare parts at times can be difficult.
The generation plant was constructed in the 1970’s and is equipped with engines that are over 26 years old.
Ross said that the power supply company does not plan on abandoning the old power plant when the new one comes on stream as they will need all the power generated fed into the national distribution grid to meet demands.
Further, Ross said that while they are investing millions to construct a new power plant, they are also upgrading their sub division’s electricity distribution network.
“So the project itself is not (only) the construction of a 46.5MW power plant, it is sub-station upgrades, installing a waste disposal system, drilling a new water well to benefit the entire compound because GWI (Guyana Water Inc) cannot meet our …daily requirement. So we are developing, improving and making our existing plants more efficient,” Ross underscored during the tour.
It was further explained that the utility company will also be installing an incinerator to properly dispose of its waste from fuel. At the moment, the company is forced to utilise a fuel tank as a waste disposal unit since they are unable to dispose of the waste oil.
Company officials during the tour also related to the Prime Minister that in the near future they will need lands for the expansion of their work. Two possible expansion areas to the east and south of the compound have been identified.
During the tour, Ross informed the Prime Minister that while they are accustomed to seeing a high demand for power on the East Coast, Georgetown and some sections of the East Bank of Demerara, they have noticed an increase in demand in areas such as Kuru Kururu and along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. He explained that this demand is possible since more people are constructing and occupying lands in those areas.
Christmas power supply
Gary Hall, Divisional Director of Administration of Power Producers and Distributors limited (PPDI), while speaking of the company’s work programme said that they working to complete maintenance and upgrading of power plants. He noted that they have completed approximately eight overhauls of power plants, with three remaining for the year. Hall also explained that they are working to complete all maintenance by the first week in December.
On that note he assured that power outages during the Christmas season should be minimal.
“We have had to do eleven overhauls this year… we have at least three to finish before the end of the year, all of our maintenance activity should be finished on or before the first week of December, so we should have full generation availability.” Hall said.
PPDI is the local company which took over management of the Wärtsilä engines when the state ended the management contract with the Finnish company. PPDI has also taken on management of GPL generators.
Committed
In June 2019, GPL’s CEO Albert Gordon had committed to providing more reliable power supply by the end of 2020.
Gordon at a press conference had noted that the frequency at which a customer should lose power due to a loss in generation should be 0.5% and committed to giving customers a 99.5% level of reliability from the generation system, which translates into having a higher reserve margin.
“The distribution system was falling apart in some areas and the project is really about rehabilitation and reconfiguration but there are still generation and transmission aspects and at some point we will be regularly breaking out these projects,” he explained.
“By the time we finish with all of these initiatives, and we are working with a five-year window (which closes in 2020)…for generation and a little longer for the transmission work. By then we should have a normal system that can evolve and grow in a reliable and sustainable manner and we are getting good support from the government in chasing down financing but it takes time,” he added.
