THE Government of Guyana has been channelling significant sums of money towards the provision of electricity to customers on the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) grid. Over US$225M has been invested from 2006 to 2012. Chairman of GPL’s Board, Winston Brassington, speaking at a media engagement yesterday morning at the Regency Hotel, said this investment has been funded mostly by the Government of Guyana, and through various loans at an interest rate of three percent from agencies such as the China Import-Export Bank, Petro-Caribe Funds, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB.) To a smaller extent, the investment was also funded by GPL itself, Brassington stated.

He explained that $44B, or US$18M, of these funds went into generation, and this included the investment to double the company’s Wartsila capacity. GPL invested in increasing its Wartsila capacity from 40 megawatts in Demerara to a level of 105 megawatts, the position it will achieve at year end when the new Vreed-en-Hoop plant is completed.

Transmission and distribution also accounted for $13B of the investment, Brassington explained, saying that some of this is financed by the Chinese Import-Export loans, and include creating an integrated network between East Berbice and Demerara, construction of seven new sub-stations, and catering for upgrades. In addition, there was the $1.8B invested in metering, and the over $1B in loss reduction activities and other investments.

For 2012 alone, a total of $10B, or US$50M, was invested in GPL, Brassington said. (GINA)