Amaila Falls Hydro Project…Show us how tariff will be significantly reduced - APNU

Amaila Falls Hydro Project…Show us how tariff will be significantly reduced – APNU

Aug 03, 2013 News

By Abena Rockcliffe
A briefing aimed at changing the minds of the parliamentary opposition parties about the Amaila Falls Project has resulted in A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) questioning, even more, the authenticity of the project.
On Wednesday, Brian Kubeck, President of Sithe Global and Sean Klimzack of the Blackstone Group along with their teams, at the invitation of the Government of Guyana, met with the opposition.

Senior Managing Director, Blackstone, Sean Klimczak

The teams’ “obvious” remit was to convince the opposition parties to support the Amaila Falls Hydro Project. But APNU declared that the details which emerged as a result of the interaction with opposition political parties made clear the massive public relations scam the Government is engaged in.
According to APNU’s shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon, quite a few displeasing particulars were revealed at that meeting. Those included the fact that the project cost had moved from $840 million in June to $858M in July.
The $18M hike was already in the public domain as the teams, also on Wednesday, attended a public forum at the Conference Centre to brief stakeholders. What Blackstone, Sithe Global and government representatives did not admit was that the cost to the consumer is yet to be determined and that the design of the Hydro plant was still being finalized.
Contacted yesterday, APNU’s shadow Minister of Finance Carl Greenidge reiterated that the party’s major concern is the cost to the consumer after Amaila comes on stream.
He noted that the government keeps purporting that the tariff will be reduced “but that has been proven not to be so.”
According to Greenidge, the unfortunate truth is that the price of 11 US cents per Kilowatt hour is a figure at which the Amaila Falls Hydro Project will deliver power to GPL, not the consumer.
The former Minister of Finance explained that “that is the wholesale price; the price from the transmission line to the substation, it is certainly not the price that consumers will have to pay—that is yet to be determined.”

President of Sithe Global, Brian Kubeck

Greenidge said that the formula as reflected in the draft of the purchasing agreement could not be used by APNU to arrive at a price for consumers.
The Member of Parliament informed that at the most recent meeting held between the opposition and the Inter-American Development Bank;—July 17—Jerry Johnson, a senior IDB representative and Steven Gray the “technical man” couldn’t explain how the formula works to arrive at a cost.
Greenidge said that head of the Amaila Hydro Project’s technical team Winston Brassington, Cabinet Secretary Roger Luncheon and Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh were also present. Not even they could have lent any explanation as to how the given formula would or could be use to determine a price.
Greenidge registered that what must be noted is that “it is not Sithe Global or the IDB that are responsible for securing a cheap rate; it is the government of Guyana that has such a responsibility to its people.”
Further, Greenidge said that, “IDB was of the view that a price couldn’t be determined until the due diligence is completed.”

Design yet to be finalized
“It is unclear how one can determine the cost of a project before a design is finalized or before even identifying a spot. However, that is the state of affairs with the Amaila Falls project.”
Trying to be optimistic, Greenidge said that even though the design is unfinished, “it is probably largely done and they are probably hoping to finalize based upon details about the space situation.

Shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon

What is even more astonishing is Greenidge’s report that it is still not clear what the chosen spot is.
The former Minister said “one would think that all that would have been assessed before a costing figure could have been arrived at”.
In fact, Geeenidge said that under “normal circumstances” knowing those “important” things would have been the standard procedure to follow by a commercial enterprise.
He said that the spot and design is a determination of the enterprise, but government should have satisfied itself by knowing theses essentials by now.
Greenidge said that government is obviously not in control since it seemed as “they” too are surprised about the revelation. “We are just wondering along.”
At the recent stakeholders’ consultation, Kaieteur News asked about the numerous artist impressions that are in circulation. That question was asked so as to ascertain the most accurate image of the power plant. But Sithe Global noted that artist impressions are irrelevant. What is said to be most important is the engineers’ design. However, Sithe Global neglected to inform that that design is yet to be completed.
Yesterday Harmon said that “The PPP/C is now in a fit to explain the decision it made to take over this project, knowing full well it would suck the lifeblood of this country. The details that are now emerging have made bare the lies being peddled by the PPP/C Government that consumers will see a reduction in their light bills of between 20 to 40 percent. This is simply not true.” He concluded: “We cannot allow persons who are inept at negotiating projects of the scale of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project to continue to throw dust in our eyes.”