President Ali says buying power from ship “very feasible”

Apr 17, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, on Tuesday, told reporters that his government’s decision to purchase 36 megawatts of power from a Turkish power company – Karpowership is a feasible one to solve the country’s blackout crisis.

President Ali attended the Local Content Summit held at the Pegasus Corporate Suites, Kingston and on sidelines of the event was pressed for answers about the true cost Guyana will accrue for the electricity it is sourcing from the Turkish ship.

The reporter asked, “On the feasibility of the power ship coming to Guyana, what is the cost the government has procured that service for?”

President Ali in response said, “I think that the details on the cost and so that GPL would have those details” before asking the reporter, “But what you mean by feasibility?”

The reporter then explained, “Well, some people are saying that it is not feasible for a ship to come to Guyana for the country to rent it for two years.”

The President responded, “Of course, it is feasible” while quickly shifting the blame to the APNU+AFC Opposition for the country’s blackout woes. He even rebuked the reporter for asking the question.

“You know what is wrong with the media, you love writing headlines; you love writing headlines that blackouts, Ohhhhh blackouts, ohhhh power outage. You love those social media posts,” the President exclaimed.

He continued, “We said to you, the media has responsibilities too my dear, we said to you that there are a number of problems and one of it is capacity.”

The Head of State noted that in order to get capacity, it must be bought. “You can’t wish that capacity will come and the problem will solve, you have to buy capacity.”

To further justify buying power from the Turkish ship, the President told the reporter, “The question you should ask that I will help you to ask is, shouldn’t we charge those persons who blocked Amaila Falls [Hydro Project]?”

According to President Ali, had the past government proceeded with the Amaila Falls Hydro Project then his government would not have to buy electricity from a ship.

“We would have had 165 megawatts available from Amaila Falls to push the power that we need now,” he argued.

Meanwhile, Minister within the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar who has oversight of the operations of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) said, “The ship, tomorrow I was told, is gonna leave Cuba to come to Guyana. We are expecting it within 15 days to hook up and will put 36 MW (Megawatts) in the system and that will increase our baseload to deal with the blackouts.”

Minister Indar’s statement followed that of Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo who last week at his weekly press conference revealed that Karpowership will be selling Guyana electricity at 8 cents per megawatt over the next two years.

Guyana, however, will still have to supply the company with fuel to sell Guyana the power, the Vice President told reporters.

Buying power from a ship is only to meet Guyana’s current electricity demands until the US$2B gas-to-energy project comes on stream by the end of 2025 to supply the country with some 300 megawatts of power.

Back in 2016 when the Opposition was in power, it was reported that a Norway team had found that the planned US$900M-plus Amaila Falls project was too costly, burdensome and that its design flaws would affect its long-term effectiveness, following an analysis.

The hydropower project was initiated under the previous People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration and in August 2013, the preparations for implementing the project came to a standstill, as the Parliament of Guyana did not vote unanimously in favour of certain features of the project presented by its main sponsor, Sithe Global, a US-based investor in the international energy market.

At that time, the National Assembly was controlled by a one-seat Opposition majority of A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC).

Sithe Global withdrew from its position as main sponsor throwing the project’s future into jeopardy.

When the Coalition took over the reins of government in 2015, it decided at a meeting in Paris with Norway to perform “an objective and facts-based” assessment of the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project and an agreement was made for a Norwegian team to conduct the analysis.

Prior to the assessment, the project was heavily supported by the PPP/C governments but experienced several challenges early on, specifically problems with the access roads to the Amaila Falls dam site in Region Eight. The roads collapsed in many parts and the contractor was fired. Costs ran from US$15M to US$40M.

The US$900M-plus tagged for the 165 megawatts project was seen as too costly, with criticisms over the technical readiness of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. to take the power. There were also questions over whether the dam would actually be able to sustain the promised power, with one photo even showing the waterways dry.

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• Amaila Falls Hydro Power Project, Electricity, GPL, Minister Indar, President Ali

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