USD 18M smart meters, new transformers project

After almost eight months of assessment, it appears that evaluators of a major Guyana Power and Light (GPL) project may be ready to choose a company for the job.

The project which will see more that 25,000 smart meters and new transformers will also include some 800 kilometers of low and medium voltage lines along the coastlands. The tenders for the project—it is estimated to cost US$18.6M– were opened since February but the announcement of a winner has been delayed with little answers coming from officials.

Over a week ago, GPL’s Chairman, Robert Badal, confirmed that GPL will be making an announcement by this month-end. It is expected that evaluators will recommend a company and submit it to GPL’s board before it is handed over to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. That Ministry will then forward the decision of the award to the Cabinet for its no-objection.

There have been many questions about the delays of the award of the project with a number of letter writers raising questions about the secrecy and the time it is taking to evaluate. Sophie Makonnen, Country head of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) where part of the money is coming from, has made it clear that evaluation is at the GPL side.

The evaluation is being conducted in accordance with IDB standards and regulations, she had assured. The project would be one of the biggest to be embarked on this year by the administration.

It is part of a USD 65M initiative known as the Power Utility Upgrade Program (PUUP). The monies are coming from IDB which is contributing over USD 37M in loans and financing from the European Union for USD 27M mainly grants.

The implementation of all the projects is being overlooked by the IDB. The amounts were reportedly approved since 2014, under the Donald Ramotar administration. PUUP was in the making for a number of years and is designed to reduce GPL’s inefficiency and increase training for staffers.

Already, the first phase of the project has been implemented – the building of seven sub-stations and new high voltage lines along the coastlands, from Crabwood Creek, Corentyne, Berbice to West Coast Demerara. It included, also, the laying of submarine fibre optic cable lines in the Demerara and Berbice rivers to create an interconnected system.

However, the submarine cable across the Demerara River that was laid by CMC has been badly damaged with observers blaming the poor work done. GPL is now reportedly using the same CMC to repair the cable it laid and is expected to spend over USD 150M. The damaged cable has badly affected GPL’s capacity to bring excess power from the West Demerara area which in turn has affected consumers. A part of the CMC-built transmission lines, in the city, is also now facing severe problems with outages increasing in recent weeks. Engineers are working to find the faults. The contract was awarded to Manitoba Hydro International Limited, a Canadian company. GPL is facing major problems with outages on the coastlands with technical and commercial losses at a massive 29-plus percent. GPL wants to reduce its losses to 23.8 percent in the near term.

(Kaiteteur news)