CABINET has signalled its approval for the appointment of a Board of Directors for the newly formed State-controlled company, Power Producers and Distributors Inc (PPDI), which is now providing operations and maintenance services to the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL).
The appointment comes approximately three months after GPL cut ties with Wärtsilä, which had been providing similar services since 1994 up until the contract ended in December 2016.
At the helm of the board is Mark Bender, the Chairman, who will be supported by the Vice-Chairman Aaron Fraser, Secretary Attorney-at-Law Ronald Burch-Smith, and board members, Chartered Accountant Harriram Parmesar and Attorney-at-Law Stephen Fraser. Additionally, there are four other board members including permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and an Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) member.
In making the announcement on Thursday at the Ministry of the Presidency, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said that access to spares will not be affected by the formation of PPDI.
The transition, he posited, will enable GPL to conserve on its financial resources. “The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) will be saving, because the sums of money which were paid to Wärtsilä will definitely see an improvement in the remuneration for the persons who are in this new company and still be able to provide a saving for the GPL,” he explained.
In response to critics last month, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, said that GPL will now be able to save US$2.4M annually. In 2008, GPL had paid Wärtsilä US$6.2M, but by 2016 when the contract ended, the figure had jumped to US$10M after gradually increasing over the years.
In going forward, Minister Patterson said Wärtsilä was proposing an average cost of US$20.51 per megawatt hour.
“This would have equated to approximately US$13.3M per annum, based upon a consumption of 650,000 megawatts per year. Compare this figure to the proposed fee of US$16.78 megawatts per hour from PPDI. This would equate to savings of US$2.4M, based on the same consumption rate for an enhanced service,” the Public Infrastructure Minister explained.
“With savings of this magnitude, it would be possible to buy a brand new 5.5MW Wärtsilä engine every three years. Additionally, when it came to spare parts prices, the agreement was that GPL would be charged at a discounted price. However, the records show that GPL was paying the global list prices up until the contract termination with Wärtsilä,” he added.
PPDI will be purchasing spares for all parts at equal or better prices, Minister Patterson assured.
He said the former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government was in the dark on the large sums of monies paid out to Wärtsilä during the period 2010-2015, when Winston Brassington served as chairman of the board.
Minister Patterson is convinced that the shift from Wärtsilä to PPDI was necessary. “Upon its entry into Guyana, Wärtsilä had no prior successful operations and maintenance of power plants and its management was unwilling to offer any guarantees of its services,” he contended.
While operating in Guyana, Wärtsilä was managed solely by Guyanese and it is the intention of PPDI to maintain this model. PPDI’s top management comprises Guyanese with more than 60 years of combined experience with Wärtsilä, both locally and regionally.