GPL: We have enough power for Christmas

Dec 05, 2009 News

…two mobile generators for West Demerara

Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) says that while demands for electricity in the Demerara area will peak at an unprecedented 78 megawatts (MW) for the upcoming Christmas season, the company has enough capacity to cover demands.
GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal, during yesterday’s commissioning of the US$30M Wartsila plant in Kingston, also announced that network maintenance will be brought to a halt on December 15, to further reduce outages while generating capacity would be around 83 megawatts.
Addressing a gathering that included President Bharrat Jagdeo, Prime Minister Sam Hinds and several officials, Dindyal also disclosed that electricity demands in the West Demerara area have far outstripped production capacity.
Two mobile units are to be shifted to that area shortly to cater for the Christmas season until a multi-million-dollar Chinese project to link East and West Demerara comes on stream next year.
According to the CEO, while the decision to construct the new 20-megawatt plant was initially based largely on enabling GPL to reduce its production costs, “there is also, presently, a pressing need to meet the peak demand for electricity.”
The official noted that with Guyana entirely at the mercy of the world market prices, GPL is mindful of the need to control this expenditure.
“Two years ago, 47 per cent of GPL’s production came from diesel fired generation capacity, while the price of diesel was 48 per cent higher than that of HFO (Heavy Fuel Oil). In the same year, 73 per cent of GPL’s turnover was expended on fuel.”
However, because of high prices last year, the company expended 81 per cent of its turnover on fuel despite reducing its diesel engines to 34 per cent. “This increase expenditure was driven largely by record fuel prices and an increase in the difference in price between HFO and LFO from 48 per cent in 2007 to 71 per cent in 2008.”
Spending on fuel remains a significant burden to GPL with 53 per cent of its turnover being utilised, Dindyal said.
In the Demerara area, peak demands have dramatically increased from 57.25 megawatts from 1997 to almost 80 megawatts.
“In Demerara, GPL continues to depend heavily on high speed units and most of these have been pressed into based-load operation over the last four years. The result has been an increase in forced outages,” he revealed.
Giving a background to the project, the CEO said that in 1992, the Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC), (now GPL), had contracted Wartsila to supply an 11 megawatt power plant on a turn-key basis.
Between 1995 and 1997, a four megawatt plant was completed at Anna Regina while the Garden of Eden plant was extended by 11MW. Despite all of the 48 MW capacity being pressed into base-load operation, the operations managed to maintain an availability of over 97 per cent.
On April 3, 2008, GPL and Wartsila signed the US$27.5M for three Wartsila engines capable of producing over 20 megawatt.
“On April 10, the advance payment was made to start production of the machines. In November 2008, the design of the plant was completed and in December the same year the machine was factory tested. In May, the engines and ancillary equipment arrived in Guyana.”
(Leonard Gildarie)

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