Dear Editor,

ON his recent radio programme, Mr. Glenn Lall, in his usual ill-informed style, described the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project as a Ponzi Scheme. During the programme, Mr. Lall embellished his story with several inaccurate statements regarding cost of electricity in other Caribbean countries and the proposed construction cost of the project by the successful bidder.

Editor, it is important to set the record straight, not necessarily for [the] .
benefit of the average Guyanese, but Mr. Lall, who is either not acquainted with facts or totally in the dark with respect to this project.

Firstly, the successful company was not handpicked because it was previously involved in the project, as claimed by Mr. Lall. The fact is the company was selected because it submitted the lowest cost per KWh project in an open and competitive process where any company from any part of the world was allowed to participate.

Even Mr. Lall and his associates could have participated in the process, which, according to him, will generate extraordinary returns to the successful bidder. Why Mr. Lall refused to participate in the process or encourage others to take advantage of the opportunity to earn super profits is as mysterious as his proclivity for telling lies.

Secondly, contrary to the claim by Mr. Lall that the bidder proposed to construct the project for US$300 million, the costs submitted by the bidder were US$706.03 million and US$682.6 million under the Design-Build-Operate and Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) financing models, respectively. A simple search on the NPTAB website would have helped Mr. Lall to get the correct information. However, it was clear from his programme that he is not interested in facts but in perpetuating his fallacies.

Thirdly, the information regarding the cost per KWh for Trinidad and Suriname is equally baseless. According to Mr. Lall, the cost per kWh of electricity in Trinidad and Suriname are US$0.04 and US$0.02 respectively. However, a more credible report published by the US Department of Energy-on-Energy Transition Initiative (2020) shows that: Average rates for commercial and industrial in Suriname is US$0.07 KWh and average rates for commercial and industrial in Trinidad & Tobago are US$0.08 kWh and US$0.03 per kWh.

Hence, the US$0.07 for Guyana in the Amaila Falls project’s current arrangement is in line with Suriname and lower than Trinidad & Tobago, which heavily subsidises electricity. If the subsidy was discounted, the cost of electricity in Suriname and Trinidad would be much higher than the rates reported in the US Department of Energy-on-Energy Transition Initiative (2020). According to J.A. Colomina of the IDB, the cost of electricity in Suriname was about 13 cents per KWh in 2019 which is almost double the cost per KWh as offered successful bidder.

Equally important is the fact that the cost proposed by the successful bidder is significantly below the average price per KWh over the last 10 years, which approximated [to] US$0.12 and the current cost of US$0.16.

It is sad, Mr. Editor, that instead of embracing this critical project, Mr. Lall continues to spread misinformation about it. Fortunately, the Guyanese people are much more intelligent than Mr. Lall believes. For this reason, the majority who voted at the last election returned PPP/C to office because they understood the benefits and importance of the hydro project that the party, in its manifesto, promised. No amount of misinformation can change this fact. I would like to encourage Mr. Lall should join the majority of Guyanese and come out of the dark.

In his ‘An Essay on Criticism’ done in 1709, Alexander Pope said “A little learning is a dangerous thing”.

Mr. Glen Lall, in his “Glen Lall Show” of 8th November 2021, displays a profound deficit of learning and understanding of the energy system, project finance and commonsense principles of economic development.

Yours sincerely,
J.C. Bhagwandin