The generators which were expected to arrive on November 22nd to ease blackouts are now scheduled to be here by December 5th.
Minister in the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar told Stabroek News yesterday that the generators and transformers to be installed to ensure a bright Christmas, encountered shipment delays.
“The engines and all of the accessories are coming on one boat from Honduras directly to Guyana, the transformers came from China, everything is on its way to Guyana but different components are landing at different timings,” Indar stated.
“It is not only generators, but there are also transformers, so by December 5 they are expected to arrive here”, he said.
Amid rising blackouts and increased consumption, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) procured 17 reconditioned containerized generators worth US$27 million from Honduras which will produce 28.9 Megawatts (MW) of power and will be installed in time for Christmas.
Both the government and GPL have been criticised over the load shedding that has occurred in recent weeks and the emergency recourse to the reconditioned carbon fuels sets.
Indar recently at a press conference assured that GPL will be able to satisfy the current electricity demand when it commissions the 17 power generators.
“These additional units will significantly boost the capacity of the power company to meet the current demand”, the minister told the media.
At the press conference, Indar had said that the power utility could not meet the current peak demand of 172 megawatts as one of its sets with a generating capacity of 7.8 megawatts was offline to facilitate a major overhaul.
“Right now, the country over the last week, we have seen the peak demand of about 172 megawatts. So, we have 167 [megawatts], the country demands 172 [megawatts], peak demand. So, because of that shortfall, we see some blackouts. When the problem started, the peak demand was 184.5 megawatts, it was bigger, the shortfall was bigger, we see the peak now reducing”, Indar had told reporters at the press conference.
GPL Executive, and Management Committee member, Kesh Nandlall, a few months ago had told this newspaper that these generators are going to be located at Plantation Columbia where the utility is currently engaged in preparatory works.
The Columbia station is in the Mahaica /Mahaicony area and the generators will feed into the Demerara/Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).
Nandlall had explained that the generators were of the Hyundai brand and were “very mobile units”.
Putting their use into context, he explained that they were “17 containerized units which we can also use at other locations, given they are easily moveable, as a backup generation, should the need be. For now, they are going to be stationed at Plantation Columbia.”
Questioned about the rationale for purchasing reconditioned units instead of new ones, and if the company was getting value for money, Nandlall had said that the decision to buy the units was a sound one as an assessment was done before the purchase.
“We did the assessment and they are value for money, in terms of or as compared to us purchasing new ones,” he explained while pointing out that new generators have more than doubled in cost.
