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Power demand now more than GPL can supply

Oct 22, 2008 News

– CEO Bharat Dindyal

Blackouts around the city will be eminent for the rest of the year as Guyana Power and Light has been reaching its capacity even as the Christmas season approaches.
Yesterday, Chief Executive Officer of the company, Bharat Dindyal, said that the present demand for electricity has reached the peak experienced during the Christmas season.
“We are now faced with Christmas; what happens every year from about mid-September to December is that there is a marked increase on the demand…our demand this year has exceeded our peak last year, which is what is seen around Christmas time,” Dindyal said that it is very unusual for such a drastic increase at this time of the year but noted that the company is working to finish the maintenance of equipment before the holiday season.
“We are seeing demands very close to 70 megawatts and this is not during the peak. What has happened is that while we are trying to finish our maintenance for Christmas, we are caught with this heavy demand and an unexpected level sustained both day and night.”
This increased demand, he noted, has placed the company in a very difficult position. Recently the company took off one of its engines in Demerara for a major overhaul and upgrade but was forced to do just the overhaul because of the demand for electricity. “We do not have scheduled load shedding but we get very close to putting everything on line when we have a demand of 70 megawatts. When it passes 70 megawatts there is nothing more we have to put online,” Dindyal said.
He noted that the company’s system dynamics have changed significantly.
“We have a fleet of 17 Caterpillar sets in Demerara. What happens with the Caterpillar sets is that if there is a fault in the system the engines trip and leaves the system. This is a protective measure,” he added.
The CEO added that the company cannot afford to lose the Caterpillar sets and as such they have installed equipment both at Sophia and Kingston to programme automatic load shedding to save the system. “This has helped in a number of cases. What happens as soon as the system frequency deteriorates the equipment intervenes and actually sheds a certain number of feeders to stabilise the system.”
– If this does not occur, he noted, then the company would experience complete shutdowns. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds said on Monday that he hopes that the company is able to manage the ‘tight’ situation until next June when some new 20 megawatt HFO diesel engines will be installed at Kingston. (Tusika Martin)

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