GPL: Electricity demands projected to rise to 112MW in three years

Sep 29, 2011 News

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-hydro will insulate Guyana from oil prices, says PM Hinds

By Leonard Gildarie

Despite Tuesday’s hefty investment and commissioning of a 15.6 megawatts Wartsila power plant at Kingston, Government is keeping its fingers crossed and hoping that it won’t have to make such a major decision before the completion of Amaila Falls hydro-project scheduled for 2015.
According to a cautious Winston Brassington, Chairman of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL), the state-owned power company, with the hydro project set to come online in 2015, Government remained “hopeful that we will not have to make more generation investments after this new plant.”

But according to Bharat Dindyal, Chief Executive Officer of GPL, rising demands and thousands of new customers continue to place a strain on the company.
“GPL is forecasting that the demand for electricity will continue to grow above four per cent over the next five years with peak demand in the Demerara/Berbice Interconnected System expected to reach 112mw by 2014,” he warned.
The significance of that 112mw is evidenced by the figures announced, the official said.
“Peak demand in Demerara is now approaching 80MW with demand during business hours peaking at almost 77MW.”
Coupled with this is the fact that GPL has projected that its customer base will grow by 25,000 new connections over the next five years.
Higher demand
“Since 2005, GPL has been setting a new power production record every year with average annual growth over the last five years being 4.4 per cent. Generation this year is forecasted at just over 650 gigawatt/hours with the Demerara Interconnected System expected to account for 79 per cent of that.”
The power company is barely producing enough to meet demands.
“Available generation capacity in Demerara without this 15.6mw expansion is 86mw with 19mw being mobile Caterpillar capacity. Without this expansion, our reliable base-load capacity is 59mw. The need to invest in new, base-load capacity is therefore obviously, not only the absolute capacity but also larger units.
“Our planning continues to be premised on the Amaila Falls hydropower project achieving commercial operation by 2015,” Dindyal said.
According to Dindyal, electricity demand and the economic health of a country are connected.
If Guyana’s growth rates continue above three per cent, then it is more than likely that the demand projections will rise even more.
Explaining the new power plant, Dindyal said that on November 16, 2010 a US$18,366,290 contract was consummated with Wartsila Caribbean for the supply of two generators.

They arrived on May 16, last. Assembly of the plant started on May 27.
“Commissioning tests on the two generators were successfully completed on September 15 and on September 19. The units are now in commercial operation,” he disclosed.
“This expanded power plant with an installed capacity of 36.3MW is GPL’s largest and most modern power generation facility. It is designed to comply with stringent environmental standards for stack and noise emission, quality of waste water discharge and fuel handling.”
Not a generation problem
The official, on Tuesday, blamed the vast majority of Guyana’s power interruptions on transmission and distribution issues.
“These include maintenance, network faults and switching activities.”
A US$40M investment in new substations under the GPL infrastructure development programme is also underway and would reduce the size of feeders thereby exposing fewer consumers to individual faults, he disclosed.
Also at the commissioning of the new power plant on Tuesday were President Bharrat Jagdeo; Energy Minister Prime Minister Sam Hinds, Cabinet members and senior GPL officials.
The President, who commissioned the facility, admitted that the GPL journey over the years has not been an easy one. Equipment around 50 years old, the base-load equipment were all replaced. The former People’s National Congress administration could be largely blamed for its bad policy that led to a deterioration of infrastructure, President Jagdeo said.
The new engines, he said, represent yet another significant shift forward for Guyana and GPL.
However, the Guyanese leader warned, the country should not sit back and admire its “handiwork”.
LCDS alignment
Government has started the movement to align Guyana with its Low Carbon Development Strategy.
With indications that some industries may eventually have to pay for carbon emissions, Guyana is definitely heading into the right direction with its hydro electric project at Amaila Falls, he said.
These payments may very well place a financial burden on these industries, affecting prices.
Meanwhile, the President pointing to current growth patterns in Guyana, believed that Guyana will have to prepare itself for double digit growth with significant ongoing projects in the mining and tourism oil and gas and in large scale farms expected to produce results.
Along with these are ongoing government programmes that include the distribution of power to another 30,000-40,000 house lots over the next five years to Guyanese.
Prime Minister Hinds noted that the commissioning of the expanded Kingston Wartsila plant represents another good day for Guyana and the power sector and is a continuation of the “journey” started by this government when it came to power back in the 90’s to repair GPL.
The Prime Minister recalled that at the time, 50 per cent of the times there were blackouts.
Government, he said, is now moving to equip several hinterland homes with almost 13,000 solar panels. This project should be completed within the first quarter of next year.

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