– As Gov’t rolls out comprehensive plan to boost grid capacity, reduce electricity costs
– Jagdeo says

TO meet increasing electricity demands, the Government of Guyana has established a comprehensive plan to enhance the country’s power grid and reduce the cost of electricity.
Highlighting several strategic components of this plan, Peoples Progressive Party General Secretary and Guyana’s Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, on Thursday, at his weekly press conference, disclosed that citizens will see real time monitoring to manage and avoid power outages with the establishment of a state- of -the art control centre.
This constitutes one of the elements of the nation’s eagerly awaited Gas-to-Energy initiative.
Simultaneously, the government plans to allocate nearly $200 million towards the enhancement of transmission, distribution, and generation capabilities. This investment aims to accommodate the anticipated increase in power supply upon the project’s completion.
“We are upgrading the whole system, and these would be smart grids. On the line itself, you have a fibre-optic cable that will be connected to the control centre. So, you won’t need to get a report when a blackout takes place anywhere else. [In] real-time, you can know from the control centre at Eccles…wherever in the country…or on the inter-connected grid, if you have a power outage, you can dispatch people immediately,” Dr. Jagdeo told reporters.
This will particularly target localised faults where there are old transmission lines and transformers.
The gas-to-energy project is divided into five components. These include  the laying of the pipeline to bring the gas to shore, the construction of the power plant and Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) facility, the installation of transmission lines, the construction of the control centre and upgrading of the distribution system.
The aim is to provide Guyana with a supply of 300 megawatts of cleaner power at 50 per cent less than the current price
The ambitious project aims to harness natural gas from the Liza Phase One and Two Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, channeling it through a 200km, 12-inch diameter pipeline to a new power plant and Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility at Wales.
By providing a more reliable and cost-effective energy source, the initiative could drastically reduce the frequency and duration of power outages while also cutting the cost of electricity from the current US$0.25/0.36 per kWh to an affordable US$0.06/0.07 per kWh.
With all this new power set to come on stream, Jagdeo noted that the government is cognisant that it will have to make upgrades to the existing grid.

ELECTRICITY LINKS
In the Georgetown area, a contract has already been awarded to link the power plant in Kingston to a substation at Sophia to boost electricity reliability in that area.
Meanwhile the government is now looking to boost capacity in region 10. Currently the government is subsidising electricity from a private mining company in Linden to provide electricity.
And according to Dr. Jagdeo, this is being done at a high cost, and, to reduce this, the government is examining the establishment of a transmission main from its Garden of Eden power plant on the East Bank of Demerara to Linden and other surrounding areas in the region.
“We are looking at a transmission main now going from maybe the Garden of Eden all the way to Linden. Right now, we are buying power from Bosai at a very expensive rate and we are subsidising it to the community.  So, we need to take some of this power up to Linden and once that is built, we will then build some sub-stations along the highway so that we can distribute. There is going to have a lot housing development along the highway so that we can distribute power there,” Jagdeo explained.
Furthermore, the government will allocate solar units to communities in the hinterland regions of Guyana.
“We are also putting in some solar units around the country — 35 megawatts of solar power. We are talking to a company to take our gas to transfer it to power plants in Essequibo, in Bartica, in Lethem that are not connected to the grid, so they too can enjoy power generated.”
“All of this is a part of the plan. We have a comprehensive plan to upgrade transmission and distribution along with the generating capacity.  So that is what the control centre will grow into… a modern grid. It’s taking a lot of work but it will get there soon,” Jagdeo added.