GPL allocated $3.6b in 2019 budget

A sum of $8.9 billion will be allocated in 2019 to improve the energy sector and GPL will receive $3.6 billion, Finance Minister Winston Jordan said in his national budget presentation on Monday.

“To date, our energy matrix has been almost entirely reliant on imported fossil fuels, creating a high dependency on heavy fuel oils, which results in susceptibility to volatile prices, and contributing to the high cost of electricity. To compound matters, the anticipated rapid expansion of the economy would see our energy demand doubling over the next decade,” Jordan told the National Assembly.

Noting that current energy generation and transmission systems restrict growth and socioeconomic development, Jordan said, the government’s Green State Development Strategy envisions the country no longer being hostage to an unreliable, unclean and undiversified energy mix.

He reiterated that government will assess the use of domestic natural gas, as a transition energy source, and seek to strengthen and expand the generation and transmission capacity of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) to reduce the cost of electricity for all.

Budgetary allocation to support GPL in 2019 is $3.6 billion, with funding going in part towards continued support in the rehabilitation of over 800 kilometres (km) of the GPL’s low and medium voltage network, covering Parika to Corentyne. The works focus on the reduction of overall electricity losses, both technical and commercial, and the improvement of safety and reliability of the system.

“We will also advance construction works to the Kingston and Vreed-enHoop substations, continue the implementation of GPL’s smart metering programme, and strengthen the management and governance structure,” Jordan noted. The energy efficiency programme, in which over 10,000 LED lights, 1,000 motion sensors and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels were installed across 90 government buildings, representing 1,942 kilowatts (kW) of additional installed capacity of solar energy in 2018, Jordan said, will extend into 2019. The extension will see, he said, the installation of PV panels on an additional 80 government buildings and 400 standalone solar powered street lamps across regions, which will result in estimated savings of $114 million, annually.

Government will also pilot the first fully electric vehicle in the public service, with the accompanying solar charging station, in 2019, he said.

All budget agencies are mandated to ensure that vehicles to be procured