Disappointed at power outages, President pleads for patience

While disappointed at the frequency of recent power outages, President Irfaan Ali reminded citizens of Guyana Power and Light’s prevailing circumstances and struggles maintaining stable electricity.

As residents continue to feel the brunt of GPL’s sporadic power outages daily, the Head of State yesterday said that the utility is currently modifying the ways in which it can increase its power generation capacity. (See other story on page 3.)

Against this background, Ali recommended an increased power generation capacity in light of the 300-megawatt Wales gas-to-shore energy project which is slated for completion by 2025.

“There is greater demand for power and energy and truth be told… the pace at which we are going requires the doubling of our power generation capacity.”

“That is why the gas-to-energy and the hydro-electric projects are so important to us in the national scheme of things, the problem is that we have to make up for lost time and also build ahead of time, due to the challenges GPL has faced overtime”, the Head of State noted.

According to him, the state power utility agency was faced with financial constraints when the People’s Progressive Party took office back in 2020.

The President was referring to GPL’s “crippling” receivables figure which amounted to $13 billion.

“The company was financially collapsing, government arrears alone they (GPL) had $13 billion dollars outstanding and we had to find money to save the company from falling apart.”

Ali asserted that under the APNU+AFC coalition government, there was lack of maintenance on the transmission lines coupled with little or no investment in baseload generation capacity which are the main reasons for the blackout currently being experienced.

He said if the 2013 Amaila Falls Hydropower project had materialised, Guyana’s power generation capacity would have been supplemented by 165 megawatts which may have placed the country in a better position in relation to standardised electricity.

He noted that large electricity consumers, who were self-generating, are now reconnecting to the national grid since the government has been subsidising electricity costs, causing a sharp rise in electricity consumption.

The Head of State said that his administration would be working assiduously with the state power company to ensure the country’s generation capacity is on par.

Last week GPL called for the conservation of electricity in the face of a big spike in demand linked to cooling needs because of the increasingly high temperatures.

In an advertisement in the Stabroek News, GPL said that the company has recorded a peak demand of 182 megawatts (MW) compared to 154 MW for the corresponding period last year.

It said that the rise in temperature has led to the heightened use of air conditioning units and fans and in some instances, these are left switched on in homes and businesses that are unoccupied.

GPL observed that the situation was not unique to Guyana. It said that Trinidad and Tobago had registered its highest ever electricity consumption in August.

It also apologized to customers in Bartica for the recent service interruptions.

In a statement, the utility explained that the Bartica Power Plant has three engines: two are sufficient to meet the demand, while the third serves as a standby unit. Presently, GPL said that it is conducting scheduled maintenance on one of the engines to ensure continued reliability. “Unfortunately, during routine maintenance on one of the two active engines, an unforeseen mechanical problem arose, necessitating immediate remedial action. Consequently, we currently have only one operational engine in conjunction with the solar farm,” GPL said.

The unavailability of the unit has resulted in reduced generation capacity at the Bartica power plant, prompting the need for scheduled service interruptions in the town.

GPL said it has arranged for a temporary unit to be on-site to ensure an uninterrupted power supply to customers.

Technical issues, including periodic power outages or shutdowns, continue to plague GPL’s Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) which serves about 90 per cent of the country’s coastline where the majority of the 750,000 population lives.

Gas to Shore Energy Project

The Gas-to-Energy project is purposed to establish infrastructure so that natural gas can be transported from the offshore Stabroek Block Liza oilfield to an integrated gas processing facility at Wales, on the West Bank of Demerara. The project will deliver natural gas liquids (NGL) and dry gas to the Government of Guyana.

A subsea pipeline is expected to be installed on the seafloor to transport natural gas from the Liza field to an onshore pipeline on the west coast of the Demerara River.

Onshore, a pipeline will deliver the gas to an integrated facility at Wales. At this facility, a NGL processing plant will treat the gas for commercialisation, and a 300-megawatt (MW) power plant will use the dry gas to generate electricity for domestic use. It is expected that cost of electricity will be reduced for consumers by some 50 per cent. Currently the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) supplies power at a rate of 15 US cents per kilowatt hour.

This project is a collaboration between the Government of Guyana and oil giant ExxonMobil to the tune of US$1.7 billion.

When completed, Guyana is expected to have a natural gasfired power plant and a NGLs plant capable of producing at least 4,000 barrels per day, including the fractionation (separating out) of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

ExxonMobil is expected to deliver the completed pipeline to the power plant by the fourth quarter of 2024 and achieve commissioning and testing of the power plant by the end of 2024. Guyana stands to save some US$500 million annually after paying ExxonMobil US$55 million each year for the pipeline. This US$55 million payment will come from cost oil to ExxonMobil for the 12-inch pipeline and is a “fixed price” for the next 20 years.

The NGL plant will be owned by the Government of Guyana prior to the conclusion of the construction and an international firm will be competitively selected to operate the project to international standards and best practices.

With development well on the way, the mapping of other power lines was included, as well as a Provision of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Services contract, which will see the installation of transmission lines and substations for the integrated NGL Plant for the 300 MW power plant at Wales.

Kalpataru Projects International Limited (KPIL) of India was awarded the contract for this project which is expected to be completed next year and it is expected to cost some US$159 million.

Amaila Falls

The 165 MW, US$858.1 million Amaila Falls Hydropower Plan (AFHP) had been the flagship project of the PPP/C government when it was in power pre-2015. But while in opposition, both A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC) had had deep reservations about it over cost, feasibility and other matters.

This opposition to the project had resulted in the main investor, Sithe Global, pulling out of the Region Eight project on August 9, 2013. APNU and AFC had a one-seat majority in the 2011 Parliament and were therefore able to successfully oppose the project.

The project comprises of three components: The construction of 150KW hydropower plant on the banks of the Chiung River. The construction of 13.8KV transmission network (Kato Hydro Station, Secondary School and Kato Village); and the construction of 120V distribution network in Kato Village.