Giftland to supply GPL with 4.5 megawatts of power

Jan 21, 2020 News

– Power Purchasing Agreement finally signed

The state owned Guyana Power and Light Inc. has finally sealed the deal with Giftland Mall to supplement more than four mega watt (Mw) of power to the grid after almost two years of back and forth.

Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson

This disclosure was made by the Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson, yesterday on the sidelines of an event.
According to Minister Patterson, “the Power Purchase Agreement has been signed…The technical modalities have been worked out and I think very shortly the licence will be granted.”
“Giftland will be supplying about four megawatts into the power grid to augment what GPL has at the moment,” Patterson added.
Last September, owner of the Pattensen, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown Giftland Mall, Roy Beepat, announced that he had submitted two proposals to supply power to the GPL grid.
Beepat had stated that his power generating system has the capacity to share some 4.5 megawatt [Mw] with the Guyana Power and Light Inc depending on the time of day. While Giftland has 6.7MW of power, only 1.6MW is used during optimal operations.
This, Beepat said, could help reduce the shortfall experienced by the power company resulting in frequent blackouts on East Coast Demerara.

Giftland Boss, Roy Beepat

When contacted yesterday by Kaieteur News, Beepat announced that they expect to start supplying the grid with power by May 2020.
“Given that there is now a signed PPA, work has now been initiated to implement the necessary interconnections required for the Giftland Mall Power Plant to connect to the National grid’s Infrastructure…once confirmed, we estimate a 3 month period to be ready to supply.”
There is a scheduled meeting later this week between the respective technical teams to confirm designs for the necessary connections.
The extra power being acquired will be a significant boost in the GPL’s power generation.
Just September of last year, the power company announced that due to unforeseen occurrences and generation and operational issues, it is currently challenged to provide the required generation during peak demand.
GPL’S current power generation stands at 142 megawatts while the peak demand measures 124.6 megawatts. This allows for a 17.4-megawatt reserve, which falls below the internationally required standard of 20 percent of power generation.
Because of the low reserve capacity, power disruptions due to maintenance of generators may occur. Hence, the need to increase generational shortfall is critical.