–Dr Jagdeo says, as GPL continues efforts to integrate power ship with national grid
EVEN with the 36-megawatt (MW) power ship almost fully on stream, the government is still seeking to attain an additional 30MW of power, in order to significantly boost the country’s efforts to supply stable electricity until the gas-to-energy project comes on stream.
This is according to People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo during a press conference at the party’s headquarters on Thursday.
The General Secretary, while expressing his contentment with the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL)’s significant progress with the installation of the power ship, said: “We’re hoping with the 36 megawatts now added to the system that we’d have enough power in the system to end the current spate of blackouts, which come from the unavailability of power.”
He said that the government is exploring options to secure an additional 30 MW of power in an arrangement similar to the one with Karpowership.
According to a press release, as of yesterday afternoon, GPL and the Karpowership team completed testing the engines, transformers, fuel, metering and telecommunication systems on the power ship.
GPL went on to say that their engineers were finalising testing of the protection relay devices to ensure there is communication between the ship and their Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
The SCADA system will monitor and control the power distribution network to ensure efficiency and system reliability.
“Once completed today [Thursday], the team will commence dispatching power from the power ship to the grid,” GPL said, adding: “The power will be injected into the DBIS, incrementally, beginning with Berbice, and continuing through the various load centres in Demerara.”
Notably, the power ship arrived in Guyana last Wednesday, and will be interconnected to the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS), at Everton, in Region Six (East Berbice, Corentyne).
During a tour of the vessel on Monday, the Head of GPL’s Executive Management Team, Kesh Nandlall informed the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the ship is ready to operate at maximum capacity.
The power ship, which will be in Guyana for the next two years, last operated on the Caribbean Island of Cuba. It has two engines which produce 18.5 megawatts of power each.
On April 13, GPL signed a contract with Urbacon Concessions Investments, W.L.L (UCI) to charter the power ship for a period of two years, with US$1 million paid as a mobilisation fee.
The contract includes the provision of operational and maintenance services as part of the agreement.
UCI is a subsidiary of UCC Holdings, a company incorporated in the State of Qatar. UCC Holdings has a strategic alliance with Karpowership International, a Turkish company.
Once connected, the power-supply ship is expected to operate at a remarkable 96 per cent availability, and will be integrated into GPL’s grid at 69 kilovolts (kV).
Under the terms of the agreement, GPL will pay a monthly charter fee of 6.62 US cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the power ship, along with a 0.98 US cents per kWh operation and maintenance fee, based on electricity generation.
The utility company is also responsible for the supply of heavy fuel oil (HFO) for the operation of the generators of the vessel.
The persistent power outages, attributed to various factors, including aging infrastructure and increased demand, have underscored the urgent need for infrastructural upgrades within GPL’s network.
In response, GPL is actively exploring renewable-energy options, and is poised to embrace the government’s gas-to-energy project, which aims to supply around 300 megawatts of power by the last quarter of 2024.
