THE GUYANA Power & Light (GPL) plans, in 2016, to upgrade, extend and build substations to improve the overall distribution of electricity countrywide.According to GPL’s acting Chief Executive Officer Colin Welch, during his end-of-year report, a total of $543M has been allocated for development of substations. These will be located at the Soesdyke/Linden Highway Junction, Canal No. 2, at Parika, and at Williamsburg. However, the Kingston Substation, No. 53 Substation, Sophia, Vreed-en-Hoop and Edinburgh Substations will be extended this year.
GPL’s strategic long-term generation plan is premised on the continued use of renewable sources of power to meet base-load generation needs.
While Guyana has both wind and photovoltaic (PV) potential, and an ongoing interest is being shown by various parties from time to time, it is not expected that any such development will significantly impact the generation mix in the future.
Guyana also has potential for co-generation from biomass, and various parties continue to look at wood waste, paddy husk, and waste from ethanol production to produce up to 26MW of electricity.
International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA), an investor in the Hope Wind Farm Project, says it intends to commence work on the farms once it gets the green light from government. An IPA spokesman has said the 25-megawatt facility can reduce the country’s fuel bill by US$5 million (G$1B) annually.
Lloyd Singh, proprietor of IPA, has said that by the end of the third phase, the project could provide up to 65 megawatts of electricity. He also noted that if phases two and three of the project are implemented, 65 megawatts can be added to the power grid. Renewable energy, particularly wind, is available 24 hours every day throughout the seven days of the week in every year.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it is determined that the project would not have a negative impact on its surroundings. The IPA said energy is integral to development. Every developed economy in the world has been built extensively on disproportionate consumption of what had then seemed to be abundant, cheap energy – fossil fuels. It is known, however, that emissions from industrial magnitude consumption of fossil fuels have, all the while, been spawning a global climate change time bomb.
Wind, the company said, is clean and renewable, and the cost of wind technology has been declining. According to work done by Mckinsey & Co for the Guyana Government, wind power is the third cheapest energy source behind nuclear and geothermal energy in the lineup of power technologies that reduce CO2 emissions.
Reports reveal that one megawatt-hour (MWh) of wind energy reduces CO2 emissions by roughly 1,200 pounds, so a single average size 1.67-MW turbine that produces over 5,000 MWh of electricity would reduce CO2 emissions by over 3,000 tonnes. If 50 per cent of Guyana’s electrical needs were to be replaced by wind power, it would result in a 250,000-tonne carbon reduction, which would be valued in a carbon-trading system at US$6.2 million, assuming a $25/tonne price.
In addition, with wind generation, operating costs are predictable once the initial capital outlays are provided, unlike with fossil-fuel generation.
By Rabindra Rooplall
