GPL to construct 5km transmission line in 2020 ─ $5.2B loan secured from IDB to fund project ─transmission line to duplicate current line between Sophia and Kingston substations

Jun 21, 2019 News

The Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) has secured $5.2B (US$2.5M) in funding through a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to construct five kilometres of transmission line, in addition to expansion works to begin 2020.

Divisional Director of Projects within GPL, Ryan Ross

During its presentation to the Public Utilities Commission, GPL announced plans to construct the transmission between its Sophia substation to Kingston’s substation. This will be done to duplicate the link between the two stations to make the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) more resilient.
In explaining the reason behind the project, GPL’s Divisional Director of Projects Ryan Ross told the Department of Public Information, “We have one single transmission line [between the substations]. At present, if that line fails, what effectively happens is that there’s a separation”. According to the Projects Director, this separation, “would likely result in a complete system shutdown.”
This connection between the substations is said to be the most important line of transmission. The GPL official reasoned that the Kingston power plant is the company’s most important power plant, generating 58 Megawatts of electricity. Should there be a disruption in the current transmission line at the Sophia substation, this would affect consumers as far as Berbice. Hence, the project to come on stream is of critical importance.
Plans are also in the pipeline to construct a transmission line from Vreed-en-Hoop to Wales. Afterwards, a substation will be constructed at Wales, from which another transmission line will connect Wales to Garden of Eden. These plans under GPL are being actively explored to achieve redundancy in its transmission system.