-President Ali says in response to ongoing electricity woes
-power ship to leave Cuba for Guyana today

FOLLOWING the announcement that a power supply ship will depart Cuba for Guyana today, President Dr Irfaan Ali, on Tuesday, said that the Government of Guyana takes the responsibility of finding solutions to the ongoing power woes in the country.

The Head of State commented on the situation which has attracted remarks of frustration from the population, on the sidelines of the Local Content Summit where he noted that the recent agreement to acquire some 36 megawatts of power from UCC Holding for a power ship, is a feasible one, and will add to the national grid thus offsetting generation shortfalls.

Stating that several problems led to the situation, he explained that the exponential growth in demand and lack of capacity are major issues. Against this backdrop, he said that part of the solution lies is the buying of additional generation capacity.

“…there are very few companies that can give you this power in 15 days. We have been able to get this in 15 days. Of course it’s feasible,” he told reporters.

As such, he added that the government takes ownership of the system that it inherited in 2020 and further takes the responsibility of finding the solutions to fix it.

Meanwhile, the Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, during a panel discussion at the same event on Tuesday stated that the current spate of blackouts is temporary and will be fixed soon.

“The ship, tomorrow [Wednesday] I was told, will leave Cuba to come to Guyana. We’re expecting it in a few days and it will put 36 megawatts in the system,” he disclosed.

While noting that it was a temporary measure, he said that there are plans in place to deal with the situation, in the immediate term, to address the shortage in generation capacity to bridge the gap, until the gas-to-energy plant comes on stream with the 300 megawatts of power to add to the country’s grid.

He also noted that the electricity issues have transcended many administrations and most recently was caused by the increased demand for power with the rapid transformation of the country’s economy and growth in several sectors.

Late last week, President Ali announced that the government had finalised an agreement for the supply of emergency power to address the increase in power outages.

Through the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL), the time-chartered agreement with UCC Holding for a power ship to be deployed to Guyana was signed.

The agreement will see the chartering of a power supply vessel which will be connected to GPL’s Demerara-Berbice Integrated System at Everton in Berbice providing support to the generation capacity of the power company. The vessel will be in the country for 24 months.