– government pursuing power purchase agreements with Giftland, Banks DIH

THE Government, based on initiatives taken thus far, has been able to significantly reduce load-shedding activities, and intends on further reducing power outages by entering into power purchase agreements with Giftland Mall and Banks DIH Ltd.
Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, made these pronouncements during a post cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency on Friday.

Several areas in Georgetown, East Bank Demerara, West Coast and West Bank of Demerara and Berbice are experiencing hours-long blackouts as the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) de-energised the submarine cable which links the Kingston and Vreed-en-Hoop stations.
In a notice, the power company said, the submarine cable which links the Kingston and Vreed-en-Hoop stations developed a suspected fault along sections located approximately 0.5 km offshore from its Kingston operations.

According to Harmon, there was a fault on the LS6 submarine cable, which links GPL’s Vreed-en-Hoop and Kingston substations.

“Cabinet was informed that on June 2 at around 21:00hrs there was fault on the submarine cable linking the two sub stations, resulting in a loss of 14 megawatts of electrical power that will be transferred from Vreed-en-Hoop to the Eastern Section of the Demerara-Berbice interconnected system,” he said.

Government has since been engaging the cable manufacturers, who were tasked with inspecting and conducting repairs at the shortest possible time.

In the meantime, there have been other interventions such as returning two caterpillar units from Anna Regina, Essequibo to the Demerara-Berbice interconnected system. They were returned and are operating out of the Onverwagt Power Station.
GPL has also been transferring six megawatts of power from the Vreed-en-Hoop power plant directly to a feeder at Kingston via a 13.8 kilovolt submarine cable.
“It was successfully installed across the Demerara River and was tested and energised on Wednesday June 12… it is supplying about five megawatts of power from Vreed-en-Hoop to eastern Demerara-Berbice interconnect system,” Harmon explained.

Government, through the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, has also taken other measures to remedy the situation and restore full power to the affected areas.
Part of those efforts include pursuing power purchase agreements with Giftland Mall and Banks DIH Ltd for five megawatts each, during peak hours.

Harmon said the agreement with Giftland was finalised and will be submitted to the board of GPL for approval on Monday June 17, while discussions have commenced with Banks DIH but, excess capacity may not be available at this time from that entity.

“With all the recent efforts there was very little load shedding on Wednesday June 12 and none since Thursday June 13,” said Harmon, while noting that due to the reduced load on the Vreed-en-Hoop system, which is now isolated, it is less stable and there have been unplanned outages in areas along the West Coast and West Bank of Demerara.