–says his wind-energy proposal,though well received, needs careful thought

MINISTER of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson has expressed disappointment in businessman, Haresh Narine “Chinee” Sugrim’s claim that the government did not respond to his request to supply power to the national grid with his wind turbine.

Patterson, by way of a letter, has indicated that aside from written correspondence,he had even met Sugrim last February and agreed to discuss with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) the possibility of accommodating the request, even on the basis of a pilot project.
He, however, said that it was agreed internally to await the arrival of the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company to have his input on the matter.

In a letter purportedly penned by Ras Leon Saul, management of the Classic International Hotel, which is owned by Sugrim, has virtually accused the government of not only scutlling its plans to generate its own electricity, but also putting a damper on its enthusiasm about the administration’s quest to go ‘green’.
The letter was published in the March 14, 2018 edition of both the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News, under the headlines “Delay in permission…Berbice hotel threatens to dismantle wind turbine, ship it back to India” and “Government has not responded to offer to supply national grid from wind turbine” respectively.

Management of the $1B five-star Classic International Hotel, which was officially opened last April, reportedly had plans of investing in a wind turbine to cut back on energy costs.
Said the hotel in one of its missives: “Commendable is the national objective of creating and utilising alternative sources of energy. As such, we are very perturbed and dismayed that we have not yet received a response to our offer to the government for the supply to the national grid from our 250 KVA wind turbine set at Skeldon, Corriverton, Berbice.”
The hotel is claiming that correspondence to that effect was sent to Minister Patterson, officials of the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and other stakeholders.

According to Sugrim, he wrote GPL last September telling them about the wind turbine he’d acquired. In that letter, he reportedly told GPL that though the turbine has the capacity to generate 350KVA (kilo-volt-ampere) of power, he only needed a fraction of it, 20 per cent to be precise, to run his hotel.
Minister Patterson, in his letter, acknowledged receiving a letter to that effect from Sugrim, whom he unwittingly refers to as Narine. “On October 17, 2017,” the minister wrote, “Mr. Narine briefed me, via letter, on his 300 kW wind turbine which would become operational at the end of the said month.

“In this correspondence, Mr. Narine shared that only 50 kW of the generation capacity was required by the hotel, and, as a result, he would be willing to offer the excess 250 kW to the national grid.
“According to Mr. Narine, the wind turbine had been procured with the intention of powering a housing development project. However, this project did not materialise, thereby leaving Mr. Narine with the under-utilisation of power, and the issue of storing the excess power.”

But according to the minister, GPL’s existing frameworks, however, cover the connection to its grid of either independent power producers (IPPs) supplying 10 (Megawatts) MW and more, or businesses supplying 1.5 MW and above.
Minister Patterson said that this being the case, the businessman was advised that it was not possible at the time for an individual to connect to the grid, unless the supply met the minimum of 1.5 MW.

Sugrim was further advised that GPL’s hands were tied due to the ongoing development of a policy, and legal and technical frameworks governing the supply of less than 1.5 MW of power, and the sensitive technical issues affecting any supply of power of an intermittent nature (such as wind or solar) to the grid.
Said the minister, “Nonetheless, we agreed to examine Mr. Narine’s proposal with GPL, with the objective of identifying and addressing the technical issues, while we develop the framework for intermittent power supply below 1.5 MW to the grid.”

While the public may be anxious to seize the opportunity of solar and wind energy, and to connect to the grid to save on the cost of energy storage, the complexity of utility-size generation, transmission, and distribution of power is large.

According to the minister, the complexity is further compounded by the weaknesses of GPL’s grid and the sensitivity of intermittent supply. He went on to say that it requires judicious adherence to feasibility studies and grid interconnection processes, which are typically detailed and costly, but which are necessary to ensure reliable and stable supply of electricity and the safety of the grid.