…under forest agreement

MINISTER of Public Infrastructure David Patterson, on Thursday, announced that Norway has approved the transfer of $16Billion through its Climate Mitigating Ministry, which will finance the construction of 30 megawatts of solar photovoltaic farms with storage here.

The announcement follows the installation of the new Board of Directors of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL). The Public Infrastructure Minister explained that the operationalising of these farms would provide the power company with a significant boost.

In addition, funding has been approved by the United Arab Emirates, and will be used to transform the island of Wakenaam into one of the country’s first, “truly green off grid centres”.

In July 2018, the then Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, announced that Guyana is set to benefit from close to $27Billion following fruitful talks in Oslo, Norway. Impressed with the government’s 2025 energy-mix proposal, the country’s deforestation rate of 0.05 – one of the lowest and the role President David Granger has been playing in championing sustainable development, Norway unlocked billions of dollars under the Norway Forest Agreement. The government said the money would be directed towards intensified efforts to achieving 100 per cent renewable energy use, which includes the construction of solar farms totalling 100 megawatts. These farms will be located in Bartica, Lethem, Mabaruma, Mahdia and several interior locations.

Finding solutions
Meanwhile, the newly-installed Board Members of the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) were tasked with finding “innovative” solutions to the issues affecting the power company, with the new Chairman of the Board, Rawle Lucas, vowing to end the “scourge” of blackouts.

Making brief remarks at the installation of the new board, Minister Patterson noted that the board members are now tasked with the responsibility of crafting “innovative” solutions to curb the issues that have been affecting the utility company. Importantly, he made mention of the recent power outages which have been affecting sections of the country, consistently, over the past few weeks. “The blackouts can be testing to consumers because it is quite extensive at the moment,” Patterson acknowledged.

He later added, “Our customers demand better. The cost that our customers pay for electricity is quite high compared to other areas and for that cost, they would demand a bit more reliability.”

The newly-installed Board Chairman, Lucas, noted that “blackouts” have been a problem for decades and it is a “highly abnormal” problem that needs to be stopped. “It is not good emotionally, trying to see a child celebrate his or her sixteenth birthday, and at the most important moment we lose power and lose light,” he said empathetically.

“It is not good to see somebody who has just invested a sum of money, hard earned money, to start a micro-business and then to discover the biggest challenge is blackout.”

Addressing his colleagues of the board specifically, Lucas highlighted that his focus will be on ending the “scourge” of blackouts in the country, and he made it known that he will rely on their support. Lucas shared that aside from focusing on ending the blackouts, he is looking to rectify the systems at the company.

He noted already, he has perused some of the company’s fiscal information, which has caused him some concern. “It looks as if, for some reason, between 2008 and 2017– the period for which I have information– GPL moved from bad to worse. Our efficiency, if we were to calculate in dollar terms, declined by about $20B,” he shared.

What this means, according to him, is that jobs and investments have gone “to the wayside” and this is something he will be looking to work with the new board and the GPL management to rectify. Joining Lucas on the board is Reggie Bagwandin; Kirk Hollingsworth; Morsha Johnson-Francis; Elena Trim; Representative of the Public Service Union, Gillian Pollard; CEO of the Guyana Energy Agency, Mahendra Sharma and Representative of the Private Sector, Komal Ramnauth.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GPL, Albert Gordon, shared that he is looking forward to working with the team, especially since they have come at a time of “crisis”, but when there are also plans to improve the situation. “There are various weakness that we will get into once we start to have discussions with you, but we have plans for these and we have been getting support from the Minister, the Permanent Secretary [and] the government in general in sourcing the investment we need,” he said. Meanwhile, the Minister also noted that the utility company is not just about transmission and distribution and generation, but it is a company that employs hundreds of persons and has a social responsibility to Guyanese.