– efforts in train to fix problem, says Min. Indar

By Telesha Ramnarine

MINISTER within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, has described the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) as an organisation without any reserve capacity, so should the simplest of setbacks be encountered, it results in blackouts.

Residents have been complaining daily of the blackout situation in some quarters, especially those ‘fairy light’ type blackouts that so often damage household appliances, leaving residents without any form of compensation.

“What you have in GPL is an organisation that has zero spare reserve. Any issue you have on any given day with those generating sets result in power outages. The demand is so high and you have no new infrastructure generating,” Indar told the Guyana Chronicle recently.
“So any tripping in any line, any wire burn, any engine trips out or [is] damaged, or any mechanical issue, [result in] blackout,” he pointed out.
“And we put out these expressions of interest to get additional generating capacity, with the Giftland thing, with the EoI for the 30 megawatts. Because the monies that were spent with the $52M U.S. Wartsilla to buy five sets, those are not going to be installed until around April 2021. That is when the civil works are supposed to be completed and then you will install and test and so forth,” he informed.

The minister said during the time between now and April 2021, the best option would be to put in additional capacity in the form of an immediate-term measure. “So between now and then what are we to do? Just hold up our hands and get blackout all the time? No, we have to do something.”

UPGRADING NEEDED

He called attention to the fact that the country has a lot of ailing infrastructures such as roads, bridges, and sea defence. “You name it, we have it… and most of the infrastructure for GPL needs updating in various parts of the country,” he said, adding, “We have the transformational projects that we want to see get out. So I am going to make sure that I am part of that… the infrastructural transformation.”

Meanwhile, during the budget debate earlier this month, Indar stated that in the past three years alone, the power company racked up $8.7B in losses.
As it is presently, the national grid is providing 120 megawatts of electricity, an amount which is equal to consumer demand of 117-120 megawatts of power. This means there is no room for reserve power. “This is why we are finding blackouts everywhere, every day… there is zero revolving capacity… every time an engine goes down, people get blackout… there is no revolving capacity!” he said.

The company, which is said to be at a financial disadvantage, will now have to purchase power from private producers instead of benefitting immediately from the five generating sets which have been purchased by GPL.

“The previous government had lent GPL US$50 million to buy five generating sets… each weighs 150 tonnes and they are somewhere in Finland… the other part of that contract was $994 million for civil work that would take 10 months to get done,” he explained.
Since the job is only 15 per cent completed, the money spent there will not benefit Guyana until next year. But the power company has been left at a financial disadvantage because US$2.3M of the US$50M was taken from its coffers.