HEAD of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Energy Unit, Dr. Devon Gardner, believes more “spinning reserves” are needed to boost power supply by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Company.
“We get more blackouts here than we would appreciate,” Gardner told participants gathered at the Pegasus Hotel for the 10th session of the Turkeyen and Tain Talks held recently.
The presentation topic was “The Guyana imperative for prospering in a climate-altered world.”

Spinning reserves are extra generating capacity available by increasing the power output of generators that are already connected to the power system.
Gardner explained that GPL has been highly reliant on the traditional reserves that are operating at a high cost.

GPL’s generators are designed in a way that makes the operating cost high, said the energy expert, adding that only base load power generators, which provide minimum power, are in operation most of the time, when instead, peaking generators should be turned on during the hours when high levels of electricity are consumed.
According to Energy Storage Association, the base load on a grid is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, for example, one week.
Base load power sources are power stations which can economically generate the electrical power needed to satisfy this minimum demand.
The association further defined peaking resources as those which operate during the day with high peak demand.

“We have more blackouts because we do not have reserves… we need more power by installing more standby and spinning reserves,” he advised.
GPL is in the business of selling electricity to customers. It generates the power, transmit and distribute it to most of the areas along the coastal plain of Guyana.
The customer base stretches from Charity, Region Two, all the way up to Moleson Creek, Region Six.

There are a number of commercial offices spread out across the country that enable customers to pay their bills.
GPL reportedly earned $17.0 billion in the first half of 2017, up from $14.7 billion for the same period in 2016, as a result of more timely payments. This is according to the mid-year report that was produced by the Ministry of Finance.
According to the government’s mid-year report, the company’s expenditure increased from $9.3 billion in the first half of 2016 to $12.6 billion in the same period of 2017.
The expenditure increase was driven by higher cost of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) for which the weighted average cost rose to US$48.70 (for the half year) from US$30.50 as at June 30, 2016.

Despite its improved cash performance, the report also revealed the company’s technical performance remains plagued by inefficiencies. It shows that the production of electricity increased marginally to 394,832 Megawatts (MWh) in the first half of 2017, from 387,864 MWh for the first half of 2016.