Giftland boss clears the air on cost of power purchased by Govt.

Nov 02, 2020 News

…says $35M taken out of context

Kaieteur News – Roy Beepat, proprietor of the Giftland Mall sought to clear up the public misconception that he was being paid $35 million from government for the extra 4.5 megawatts of power to the grid in order to compensate for the shortfall of electricity badly needed.

Giftland boss, Roy Beepat

“Giftland notes with alarm of recent press reports alluding to being paid $35 million a month from GPL for the supply of power,” Beepat said in a statement yesterday citing that the sum was “taken out of context.”
According to the Giftland boss, if the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) were to purchase $35 million worth of power, “then the fuel requirement for that would be around $26 million.”
The remaining funds, he added, would be split between wages, parts, depreciation and servicing for 5MW engines being run24/7.
Beepat had previously disclosed to Kaieteur News that the power itself would cost around $9.9 million per month while fuel cost is estimated to be $29.5 million.
Guyana’s blackout woes is expected to ease as Giftland is set to supply the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) with almost five megawatts of power needed to boost the current supply of electricity to the national grid .
Once this is in place, it will aid in the shortage of power outages on the East Coast Demerara corridor.
The power supply is expected to be spilt with 1.5 megawatts being supplied during the daytime hours and 3.5 megawatts in the peak evening hours. Giftland’s power system has a 6.7 megawatt output capacity but merely utilizes 1.6 megawatts during peak operation periods.