THE Lethem Power Company Incorporated (LMPCI),  in a release on Tuesday, announced that it has put plans in place to restore an acceptable level of generation by mid-December, and to provide a reasonable safety margin by the end of May 2013.

After selective tendering, a contract has been awarded under which an engine for a 750 kVa FG Wilson genset would be sourced in Florida, USA and flown to Guyana. Moreover, the 750 kVa unit is expected to be back in operation by December 14, 2012, the power company said in a release.
Additionally, the exciter for the FG Wilson 625 kVa unit which experienced a failure on November 12, has been repaired in Georgetown, and was slated to have been flown back to Lethem on Tuesday. It is expected to be back in service by today.
With further help from the government, through the Privatisation Unit/National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (PU/NICIL), tenders have been invited for the provision of an additional 750 kVa, gensets.  These are expected to be available in Lethem, early in the second quarter of 2013.
The power company expressed its regrets to the residents of Lethem and asked for their patience until the FG Wilson 625 kVa and 750kVa units have been restored. Since the former went down, a Caterpillar 350 kVa set had been resorted to, to provide electricity to commercial zone Tabatinga, Central Lethem, and St. Ignatius-Culvert City with each receiving five hours of power every 16 hours.
With the return of the FG Wilson 625 kVa unit in a day or two, residents of Lethem should be receiving power for about 20 hours each day, and with the installation of the FG Wilson 750 kVa genset by December 14, power supply should be restored on a 24-hour basis to all customers in that area.
LMPCI assured that this period of difficulties did not result from inattention but, rather, from a series of unexpected, untimely failure of gensets and from preoccupation with obtaining  fuel and maintaining operations during the period of the Linden unrest.
Moreover, there are differences on how existing and new costs are to be met, and there is need for much learning in operations and maintenance of gensets and networks. The company has therefore been taking much time to get to sufficient common understanding and to arrive at decisions that are supported and accepted by stakeholders.