…to add 15.6 MW to the national grid
AS the Guyana Power and Light seeks to add to its generation capacity while relieving  the strain on overworked generators, two large 7.8 megawatt Wartsila generating units and their ancillary parts and accessories were yesterday hoisted off the MV BBC Austria at the John Fernandes Limited wharf, Water Street.
The units will be trucked to the Guyana Power and Light’s Kingston Power Station where they will be set up in preparation for commissioning by August 31, 2011.
Their addition of 15.6 megawatts to the national grid will supplement the 20-megawatt Wartsila units commissioned at Kingston late 2009.
GPL procured the new engines and accessories at a cost of US$20M and they are meant as a medium term measure until the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project comes on stream in 2015. However, until the new Wartsila units come into operation in some months, the government will also rent Caterpillar units totalling 10 megawatts to ensure that there is adequate power. The Caterpillar units should be operational within weeks, the company said.
On site at the wharf to witness the offloading were Prime Minister Sam Hinds, the minister holding the energy portfolio; and top executives of GPL, including its CEO Bharat Dindyal.
“This is a great day for us in Guyana. We are adding another 15.6 megawatts with a total cost of US$20M to the station which was commissioned in November/December 2009, and which has been running quite well,” the Prime Minister said.
According to the Prime Minister, the units that had been commissioned in 2009 reached their 10,000 hours of operation some months ago and have been taken out of commission for scheduled maintenance.
“The process of taking them off for their maintenance has caused some reduction in generation available and also some of the outages we have been seeing,” he said.
“We are happy that this project seems to be very much on target, both for time and cost, and we look forward to August 31, being able to begin commercial operations with this new plant. Everything is tight and we are on target, and we hope to continue to make progress as anticipated, so that in August we have this additional power,” he said.
“Things are anticipated to be tight until the middle of next year,” the Prime Minister said. He spoke of a Cabinet decision to rent six 1.5 megawatts Caterpillar units to supplement power generation until the new Wartsila plant is commissioned. He said these Caterpillar units will add about 10 megawatts to the system.
“We have been paying great attention to ensuring that we have a good supply of electricity and we also pay attention to ensure that the generation costs are as low as can be,” he said. As such, he said that there are support mechanisms to try to keep the prices low.
Questioned on the operational life of the Wartsila machines, the Prime Minister said that once they are maintained well, they can last as long as 20 years. However, he noted that such longevity depends on how much money the company is willing to spend and the availability of equipment.
“I think we have been having pretty good life. Our expectations in terms of maintenance and costs with the Wartsila brand have turned out to be as good as promised, and even better than promised,” Hinds said.
“Wartsila was a new brand to us when we came into Government; but I think it took Dr. Cheddi Jagan and him alone to say ‘let’s go with the new brand…it looks good’; and at that time; Omai Gold Mines Limited had Wartsila installed” Hinds said.
According to the Prime Minister, the Government has a contract with Wartsila for the operations and maintenance of the machines. “I insisted that we have a contract [with Wartsila] which covered all the different types of overhaul, because we wanted to make sure that the commitments and the guarantees were not compromised,” the Prime Minister said.