THE newly appointed Board of Directors of Skeldon Energy Inc. (SEI) held its first meeting on Tuesday last at the Skeldon co-generation plant, at 10:00 hrs.
This occasion which was deemed a ‘Visit of Familiarisation’ included first-hand updates on the current state of affairs, conducted inspection of the site, plant, equipment and also discussion with key personnel on the requirements for immediate and medium-term restoration of the installed energy capacity.
This meeting represented only the second such since the incorporation of the company on February 3, 2015, after the first meeting which was held on May 8, 2015. The fixed assets of the new company essentially represent the energy-generation assets of GuySuCo’s Skeldon investment which was commissioned approximately six years ago. A series of urgently necessary follow-up meetings is planned with a view to properly and completely establishing the new corporate entity.

During the deliberations, the Board comprising Chairman Lloyd Rose and Directors Gobin H. Harbhajan, Dr. Veerasammy Ramayya and Leslie Gonsalves engaged officials including GuySuCo Skeldon General Manager K. Bramdeo, Factory Manager R. Loncke, Electrical and Instrumentation Engineer Outar Remhit and Wartsila Plant Operations and Maintenance Manager Eldon Watson.
The undue degradation of the facilities, inherent technical deficiencies, deferred maintenance attendance and related operational difficulties were reported and carefully noted. Major rehabilitation works on the diesel generation plant were observed to be ongoing, the operation and reliability of which are critical to the stability and security of electricity supply to the East Berbice community, as well as to GuySuCo’s factory operations. As such, several urgent and immediate issues require attention at the level of the board, including technical support, technical audits, budget, working capital inputs, management and organisation structuring.

The installed capacity of the main equipment of the plant is 2-unit x 125 tons per hr. steam generators (boilers), 40Mw electricity generators comprising 2-units x 15Mw of steam generation (bagasse/heavy fuel oil), 2-units x 2.5 Mw plus 1-unit x 5.0Mw of diesel generation (heavy fuel oil). It supplies both electrical energy (electricity) and heat energy (steam) to GuySuCo’s Skeldon factory operations as well as surplus electricity to the GPL interconnected grid, under a Power Purchase Agreement. (GINA)