THE spate of blackouts, especially on the West Coast of Demerara is expected to be reduced “dramatically” with the acquisition of Chinese equipment by the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) to build several sub-stations. This was disclosed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPL, Mr. Bharat Dindyal, who spoke with reporters about the US$40M project at the Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) wharf on Lombard Street, Georgetown, last Wednesday.
As the equipment was being offloaded, Dindyal explained, in the presence of Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Laparkan CEO Glen Khan and other officials, that the equipment will be used to upgrade and construct seven sub-stations.
GPL’s Infrastructure Development Project is being funded by the Government of Guyana with the support of a concessional loan provided by the Export-Import Bank of China.
According to Dindyal, the project has to do with the power company’s ability to deliver reliable power to consumers, and will serve to improve the quality of supply.
“The situation on the West Coast is particularly critical. We are putting temporary generation at Leonora because we do not have the capacity on that one feeder. That is going to be split into three feeders now.
“The technical losses on the West Coast alone are over 10 percent. So we are going to split that into three feeders. So, right away, we will see a reduction in technical losses. Right away the people on the West Coast will see a dramatic reduction in the frequency of outages… because of the three separate feeders.
“We will deliver a bulk power to the central West Coast, and the new sub-stations will regulate voltage automatically. People are going to see a dramatic improvement in supply,” Dindyal explained.
According to him, the four vessels which have been chartered to bring the equipment to Guyana should all be offloaded in the country by mid-February. Seven new sub-stations are being constructed, he said, and about 100 kilometres of ‘69 KV transmission lines’, along with a fibre optic network and a new control centre, will be installed.
Dindyal said, North American and European construction and testing standards were used in the specifications of this project, and he pointed out that China has come a very far way in complying with these standards.
The contract stipulates that the project should be completed by September 2013, but the contractors are promising to finish it by June 2013. Dindyal said that by the end of this year, the project should be well advanced.
Prime Minister Hinds told reporters on the site that the idea to build sub-stations was contemplated since in the 1980s, when it was recognised that the country’s electricity supply system was still in very elementary form.
In the early 1990s, Hinds said, there had been reports suggesting that three sub-stations should be established to get a more sophisticated network. “But we are only now able to do it. Now we are putting in seven new ones and upgrading three others… So we are taking a step that has been contemplated. It’s a good time we are doing it,” he said.
He also observed that the project will see reduction in technical losses, and will improve mainly the transmission system. “We still need to contemplate improving the secondary distribution system, configuring it so as to tackle the commercial losses,” he said.