PRIME Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, on Sunday disclosed that engineers are currently working to restore operations within the next two weeks at the Guyana Power and Light (GPL)’s Garden of Eden power plant on the East Bank of Demerara.

The plant was taken offline following disruptions on January 15, 2022.

PM Phillips provided this update during the Department of Public Information (DPI)’s Budget in Focus programme.

Since the disruptions, 20 engineers from the Wartsila Corporation have been working around the clock to pinpoint the cause of the issue and have it rectified.

In November 2020, the government received five new dual-fuel generating sets from Wartsila, costing a whopping US$41 million and which boosted the power supply of the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) by 46.5 megawatts (MW).

Following the initial shut down of the generators, the PM had noted that the generators were taken offline on the advice of the technical officials, to avert any Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) challenges or any damage that may occur to the facility as a result.

“This is a decision that was made based on safety. This is a US$55 million investment, and precautions are necessary; we don’t want anybody to be hurt, just because we decide to ignore what is happening and run the plant,” Prime Minister Phillips had said, adding that with the Demerara Berbice Interconnected system now having less supply to cater to the demand for electricity, there may be need for load-shedding.

The Prime Minister also previously disclosed that the East Bank Demerara facility was still under warranty, and as a result, the contracted Finnish company would be liable for any and all expenses.

WARTSILA LIABLE
Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, had previously echoed similar sentiments when he explained that Wartsila has agreed to undertake the necessary costs for repairs to the equipment as part of its contractual agreement with the government.

According to Minister Indar, the company has signed an engineering, procurement, and construction contract (EPC contract) with the government.

He had explained to this publication that this is a construction contract in which the contractor holds responsibility for the design, procurement, construction and handover of a project.

According to the minister, this also includes “performance guarantees” which means that the contractor is solely responsible for the project, and in the event that there is an issue with the project, the EPC contractor would be liable for any defects and rectifications, or would have to provide compensation to the employer.

“They have not handed over the project to the Government of Guyana through GPL. We have not commissioned it as yet, because all of the works were not completed and the testing and the reliability and everything [were] not completed and during that period is when the issues occurred. So, they have to deal with all the cost for rectification and everything,” he had said.

Minister Indar added: “Wartsila also has the operate-and-maintain contract for the plant as well. So, apart from them building it out and handing it over to the government, they also have the contract to operate and maintain it as well, so it’s fully their responsibility.”

MEETING DEMAND
Even as the company continues to work to restore functionality to the generators, Minister Indar gave the assurance that GPL is currently meeting its generating demand. He stated that the demand generation is usually 110 to 114 megawatts, noting that even with the generators presently out of commission, some 120 megawatts are being generated.

Minister Indar stated that with this, GPL can mitigate blackouts and load-shedding in several areas, while the generators are being worked on.

“Right now, we have about 120 megawatts of generating capacity and our demand is around 110 megawatts to 114 megawatts, sometimes it goes to 116, it depends, but we are maintaining the generating capacity based on the current demand, so we are not giving people blackout. You’re not getting low [sic] shedding, you’re not getting the kind of blackouts, because we have the generating capacity,” Minister Indar stated.