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GPL to place engines on power grid tomorrow

Sep 06, 2011 News

 

 

US$20M Wartsila generation units….

 

By Rabindra Rooplall
Guyana Power and Light (GPL) started testing its 15.6 megawatt Wartsila generation units yesterday. Many further trials and tests of the instruments devices will be done until the commissioning of the US$20M Wartsila generators, according to Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Bharat Dindyal.
GPL had missed its previous commissioning August 31 date. There was to be the commissioning of the two 7.8 Megawatt generators which arrived last May. The new date is expected to be announced by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, the minister holding the energy portfolio.
Dindyal said that tests are being done to ensure that the instrument devices that are responsible for shutting down the engines are in full operation.
Tomorrow, the machines will be placed on the power grid and load tests will be done, Dindyal said. The two 7.8 Megawatt generators are going through a sequence of continuous trials and tests to achieve commercial operations.
He said that after this is done, the two engines will be placed on step loading. A reliability run will then be done, which means the machines will be placed on the grid to run for four days to test their ability in operation.
Dindyal had also noted that the six 1.5 megawatt Caterpillar units that were rented earlier this year to provide some 10 Megawatts to the system until the new Wartsila plant is commissioned, will still be used. Only after proper checks are done in the system, then GPL would decide if to keep some of the machines on-line.
According to the GPL boss, because of the generation shortfall being blamed on the current maintenance, the six Caterpillar sets were needed.
The Kingston power plant currently has the capacity to generate 85 megawatts of electricity.
Wartsila, a Finnish company known for building marine engines, has been in Guyana since the 1990s and is contracted to maintain and operate the engines. Demand for electricity has been growing from new housing schemes and additional equipment like air condition units.
GPL is moving ahead with a major US$40M project, funded by the Chinese, to build new transmission lines and several sub-stations across the country. Last year, the power company for the first time brought down commercial losses by three per cent to below 30 per cent.
While GPL would have catered for 500 new applications each month in 2011, the reality is that this has doubled to 1,000.
Last year, GPL saw demand spiking by 6.8 per cent because of a growth in economic activity and more household appliances coming into use.

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