GPL in race to find over 100 megawatts in next three years

Sep 14, 2019 News

The country’s main electricity company which accounts for 203,000 customers is continuing to skate on thin ice when it comes to generation.

The public meeting yesterday at the Herdmanston Lodge.

The story has been the same in the last decade or so…too little reserves, a growing demand for power and not enough money raised in time to build new power plants.
To compound all the woes about a downed submarine cable line, there is confirmation that within three years, a number of engines, totaling over 27 megawatts, will reach their life span, and be ready to be on standby or retired.
The disclosures were made yesterday at the Herdmanston Lodge, Lamaha Street, when board members of the state’s Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) and management engaged stakeholders including the regulator, the Public Utilities Commission; and members of the public.
There was a poor turnout from the public but GPL was upbeat about the future.
On the short term, there is likely within the next few weeks of more outages.
This is because the damaged submarine cable across the Demerara River, which brings power to East Demerara and Berbice from the 26-megawatts Vreed-en-Hoop power plant is still under repairs.
The cable was badly laid and has been damaged a number of times by anchors of vessels, GPL says.
The unavailability of the cable had forced GPL to run an alternative, smaller capacity cable leaving them short of six megawatts that are badly needed from Vreed-en-Hoop.
In past weeks, the shortage of power, coupled with engines taken down for maintenance, have been compounding the blackout woes.
According to Albert Gordon, the Chief Executive Officer, while under normal circumstances, there are 142 megawatts of power available, with the demand 116, leaving GPL with a about 26 megawatts of reserve power, the reality now is much different.
A number of downed engines and maintenance has left GPL tottering when it comes to generation. There are only 120 megawatts available currently, with peak demand at 116.
That is borderline, GPL acknowledged,
Between the 2020-2024 period, GPL is forecasting a demand of 200 megawatts.
With power plants taking up to two years to plan and build before commissioning, the situation is a worrisome for GPL.
Apologising and calling for patience, GPL’s board chairman, Rawle Lucas said that between, June 1 to August 29th, there were over 77 outages –about eight outages daily with the areas between Charlestown to Timehri the most affected.
One of the biggest problems remains redundancy, with lack of alternative cables and transmission lines compounding the issues.
He said that moves are being made to build new lines between Sophia and Kingston and one that links Craig, East Bank Demerara to the West side.
However, these are more for the mid and long term/.
According to Gordon, there are plans to add over 40 megawatts of solar power to the current Demerara/Berbice interconnected system; Anna Regina, Bartica, Leguan and Wakenaam.
Next month, the damaged submarine cable is expected to be up.
Almost 16 megawatts more from Kingston will be brought back online shortly after maintenance, Gordon explained.
GPL said that it intends to hold the public engagements every quarter.
PUC, the regulator, has been reporting that GPL is the company with the most complaints.