Produce electricity as much as you want but consider markets to avoid over consumption – T&T Energy Chamber warns Guyana

Jul 17, 2022 News

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Kaieteur News – As Guyana embarks on an ambitious scheme to generate hundreds of megawatts (MW) of electricity, surpassing the country’s current demand, Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy Chamber has warned the country to ensure it secures markets for the excess that will be produced, so as to avoid energy inefficiency or over consumption.

This charge was given by Dr. Dax Driver, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the T&T Energy Chamber.

Dr. Driver was a panelist on the Guyana Business Journal and Magazine discussion on ‘Sovereignty and developing country’s rights to develop oil & gas sectors’ when he shared this view on Wednesday last.

He said, “Make sure also that you are always continuing to push energy efficiency. You can focus on renewables but the electricity which you don’t use is the most valuable electricity so put that big extra on energy efficiency.”

Dr. Driver shared a lesson from the twin island, explaining “when we had our boom in the 2000’s, we built a lot of new buildings and we did not focus on energy efficiency and so there were very inefficient buildings and they waste a lot of energy so it’s important that EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) knows what Guyana should focus on.”

To this end, his advice to Guyana is “produce as much as you can, but think about how you can get that electricity to Trinidad and Tobago” for example. The T&T Energy Chamber President pointed out that there is a “massive potential demand” for renewable electricity in T&T since the country is looking to produce ammonia from natural gas.

Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen that is produced to be used in agriculture as fertiliser. Ammonia is also used as a refrigerant gas, for purification of water supplies, and in the manufacture of plastics, explosives, textiles, pesticides, dyes and other chemicals.

Currently, Guyana is moving towards the development and utilisation of its natural gas within the Liza fields in the rich Stabroek Block. The gas will be used to generate 300 megawatts of electricity for the country, with the current peak demand of just over 150MW expected to increase significantly over the next few years.

The Gas to Energy project will involve capturing associated gas produced from crude oil production operations on the Liza Phase 1 (Destiny) and Liza Phase 2 (Unity) Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels, transporting approximately 50 million standard cubic feet per day of gas via a subsea pipeline and then to an onshore pipeline to a natural gas liquids (NGL) processing plant, treating the gas to remove NGLs (i.e., propane, butane, and pentanes+) for sale to third parties, and ultimately delivering dry gas meeting government specifications for use at the power plant.

At the same time, Guyana is also making strides to generate electricity via hydro, wind and solar, in a bid to transition from the use of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to power the country. Only recently, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved Guyana’s request to tap US$83.3 million in funds the country earned from keeping its forests intact, to develop 33 MW of power. Plans to develop the Amaila Hydro power project that was geared to add 165 MW of electricity on the grid is expected to regenerate soon, while the EPA has already approved a US$45 million wind project to add 25 MW of power to the grid.

In this regard, Dr. Driver has suggested that Guyana puts plans in place for the use of the electricity to be generated. Listing Trinidad as a key potential market, he explained, “The reason why there is a huge demand in Trinidad and Tobago is that we have all these ammonia plants that are producing ammonia from natural gas. There is a massive opportunity to produce ammonia from water with green hydrogen going into ammonia. There is massive demand for that in the world…we need the green electrons to do that to offset the natural gas now going in which we are now using to make ammonia and it can also offset all the natural gas that is going to electricity in Trinidad as well, so if you can land electricity in Trinidad at the right price point, there is a massive demand for it.”

In addition to T&T, the Energy Chamber President noted that it would be “very transformational” at the same time, if Guyana would seek out other markets for its resources within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Region.

It must be noted that President Irfaan Ali has already indicated that given the significant volume of natural gas discovered in the Stabroek Block and the quantity that would be piped to shore via the US$1.3 billion gas-to-shore project, Guyana is gearing to enter the gas export market.

During his keynote address at the Caribbean Sustainable Energy Conference 2022, Ali noted that if nations are to pool their collective efforts and achieve the imperative goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, then the transition to cleaner energy sources is critical.
He said, “This natural gas facility will be linked to the establishment of an industrial park and the creation of a liquefied petroleum gas plant to fulfill both local demand and for export.”

 

 

 

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