… to boost capacity by about 10 megawatts
The Guyana Power and Light is renting six Caterpillar 1.5 megawatt generator sets at a cost of US$55,000 each per month to relieve the tight generation situation that the company is now experiencing due to some of its capacity coming off-line for maintenance. The six sets landed in Port Georgetown yesterday and it is only a matter of days before they are fully installed and providing electricity to the national grid.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, CEO of GPL Bharat Dindyal and other officials were on hand at John Fernandes wharf yesterday to witness the landing of the six machines.
“We are here to see the six [Caterpillar] units come in. You would recall that [some months ago] it became very apparent that we were short and tight on generation. In fact, it was something we were keeping an eye on all the while. One of our 5.5-megawatt units at Garden of Eden suffered a failure and that precipitated an immediate greater tightness in generation. And so we took the decision to bring in on an emergency basis these six units,” said Hinds.
“I think that we are still on a tight schedule and we are gearing to complete [the installation of the new Wartsila sets] by August 31, to have them available for commercial operation,” he said.
Speaking at the John Fernandes wharf, Dindyal said that Macorp, the local Caterpillar agent, was able to prepare the sets, which were in Panama and which were scheduled to go to Japan to aid in the relief needs following the earthquake. He said that the sets will be located at the Garden of Eden compound. “The units are going to be moved into position almost immediately,” said Dindyal.
CEO of Macorp, Jorge Medina, said that for his company, they are very pleased for the opportunity to support the needs of Guyana with regard to power. He said that the total standby capacity of the six generators is 12 megawatts.