–contract could be finalised by the end of this week, Dr Jagdeo says

THE Government of Guyana is in talks with a Turkish company—Karpowership – to supply “emergency power” to the country’s grid amid an increase in power outages, People’s Progressive Party (PPP), General Secretary Dr Bharrat Jagdeo said on Thursday.
Jagdeo, during his weekly news conference, said about 36 megawatts (MW) of power is being sought.

Recently, as reported previously, Guyana has seen an upsurge in power outages because of aged infrastructure, lack of investments from 2015-2020, and a rapid increase in the demand for power.
“GPL continues to give us headaches,” Dr Jagdeo said, adding: “We are very much aware about the problems it is causing to many people in this country. We have been inundated with complaints, and people’s lives are being disrupted because of the situation.”

Dr Jagdeo said too a government team was created by President, Dr Irfaan Ali to monitor the situation. Currently, equipment that was meant to be placed in reserve is being relied on.

“The reality is that a lot of the equipment that should have been in reserve are still being used now, [these are] old equipment…but we have to keep using them until the new power plant comes on stream,” the General Secretary said.
A contract is being drafted for the supply of “emergency power” to address the issue.

“Hopefully, before the end of the week, we can conclude this contract and have this vessel arrive in the country maybe two-three weeks later… that will see a significant injection of power into the grid in addition to what we have. We intend to contract this for two years until the gas-to-energy project is completed,” Dr Jagdeo said.

Karpowership is the owner, operator, and builder of the world’s only Powership (floating power plant) fleet.
Dubbed a pioneer in innovative energy projects for more than 25 years, the group started its energy investments in 1996, and today owns and operates a fleet of 36 Powerships with 6,000 MW installed capacity globally.

“We are hoping that within a matter of weeks we will be able to bring this situation back to normalcy and then have extra capacity to address any failure of equipment like we have experienced recently,” Dr Jagdeo added.
The government, he said, has been working on a solution to address the power situation definitively to ensure stable power in the future.

With the gas-to-energy project on the West Bank of Demerara expected to come on stream by next year, an additional 300 megawatts (MW) of power is anticipated to be added to the national grid.

The gas-to-energy project will see a 200km 12-inch diameter pipeline channelling natural gas from the Liza Phase One and Liza Phase Two Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels to a power plant and Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility that will be built in Wales.

ExxonMobil’s local affiliate, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), the operator in the Stabroek Block, and its co-venturers are constructing the pipeline.
That pipeline will be landing on the West Coast of Demerara shore, and continue approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL and power-plant facilities.

On Monday, GPL installed 14 of 17 generators and six step-up transformers at its sub-station at Columbia, East Coast Demerara (ECD), to bolster its electricity supply capacity.

Additionally, the utility company is actively exploring renewable energy options as part of its long-term strategy to diversify the energy mix, and reduce reliance on traditional fossil fuels.
GPL recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with InterEnergy, a Dominican Republic power company to enhance the management of its electricity services.