By Navendra Seoraj

THE Christmas season is fast approaching, and to ensure that there is enough power to take Guyana through this period and into 2021, Government has purchased a few generator sets worth US$2.5 million from MACORP.

With the exception of the five megawatts of power being supplied by Giftland, the national grid is providing 120 megawatts of electricity, an amount which is equal to the consumer demand of 117-120 megawatts of power. This leaves no room for reserve power.

It is for this reason that a decision was taken a few months ago to purchase power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), as it would add to the grid and reduce power outages.
“There is not enough power in the system; when you set aside units for maintenance, we have capacity that mirrors the peak demand… In a couple of months, Government had to buy about five megawatts (from Giftland); that is coming into the system on an emergency basis,” said Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo during a press briefing on Friday.

The power being supplied by Giftland will be supplemented by the new generator sets from MACORP, which are expected to produce 10 megawatts of power.

“This will be here by the end of November for Christmas, but those units will be used then deployed, once base-load comes in,” said Vice-President Jagdeo.
The Guyana Power and Light Corporation (GPL) has acquired power generating sets worth US$41 million, but there is no civil work to accommodate those sets. Those new generator sets will add 46 Megawatts (MW) in total to the Demerara to Berbice Interconnected System DBIS.

“We are now working that out; the engine is here in the country, but it will have to sit and wait for several months, whilst the civil work is being done to accommodate the engine… There was no planning,” Mr. Jagdeo said.

Those sets were purchased by GPL in February of this year, just one month before the country went to the polls.
The Vice-President said nothing was done to facilitate these sets, so a lot of work is now being done to have them installed next year.
The coastal generation of power is largely handled by Power Producers and Distributors Incorporated (PPDI), which is also State-owned, and contracted to operate and maintain the power plants on behalf of GPL.

PPDI is responsible for a total electrical output of 106.7 megawatts within the DBIS, sourcing from four power plants, namely, Garden of Eden (22 MW); Kingston #1 (22MW); Kingston #2 (36.3 MW); and Vreed-en-Hoop (26.4 MW).

In August, Prime Minister, Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips had said: “GPL has plans in the short, medium and long-term to have reliable electricity for all the people of Guyana, and expand the electricity.”

In the short-term, the main concern is reliable electricity and zero power outages, said the prime minister, who has since directed GPL’s CEO, Mr. Albert Gordon, to ensure that there is a reduction in power outages from now to the first quarter of 2021, and then further into the future.

He has also advised Gordon to take all the necessary steps to ensure that there is reliable electricity, and a reduction in power outages.