Powership to begin connection to the grid today

May 05, 2024 News

The 36 megawatts powership in the Berbice River on Saturday

– rainy weather delaying process

DPI – The process to connect the Guyana Power and Light Inc’s (GPL’s) Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) to the powership will commence today as the vessel finally arrived at Everton, Region Six.

The ship which holds 36 megawatts of electricity arrived on Saturday afternoon. It was anchored in the Berbice River, awaiting the final touches of pile driving to be done at the location in order to accommodate it in a fixed position.

Present at the location to see the incoming of the ship was Zone Manager of GPL, Berbice Ravindra Jagnandan. He stressed that his team of engineers and other technical officers were working daily and assiduously over the last two weeks to ensure that all preparatory works have been completed to accommodate the ship.

However, due to the constant change in the weather, the team faced some challenges. Nevertheless, he said, the team managed to complete over 90 per cent of the work, with pile driving and the setting up of transmission lines left to be done.

Additional lighting in the parameters of the compound which leads to the ship is also being installed.

“Once the ship is docked, we have to connect the ship to our 69 kilovolts network. When that is finished, we have some more maintenance work to do on our transmission lines and then we can inject power into the grid from the ship,” Jagnandan explained to media operatives who were also present.

Final pile driving works being done to safely secure the ship at Everton in the Berbice River

He noted that this will be done as soon as possible depending on the change of weather.

The manager further explained that the vessel comes with conductors which will then be connected to the transmission line ‘structure.’

“The ship comes with conductors which I think is about 100 metres. So, we will make the necessary connections from the gantry on the ship on to our transmission line structure and that will be the final stage of the operation. That could be done within two days,” the zone manager stated.

He posited that GPL will be able to transport all 36 megawatts from the ship to its network as frequently as is needed once everything is completed.

The ship is expected to become fully operationalised by May 8, 2024. It is expected too that it will operate at 96 percent availability.

The transmission lines being set up to connect them to the ship

Meanwhile, Executive Director of Operations (CDO) of Karpowership International from Turkey, the company which the ship is being rented from, Osman Yalman noted that the vessel consists of two engines which will push maximum amount of power.

“The powership have two engines which produce 18.5 megawatts each and which will be supply to the grid,” Yalman stated.

In order to bring relief to citizens and meet the high demand of electricity in the country, the government through GPL signed a multi-million-dollar contract with Urbacon Concessions Investments, W.L.L (UCI), a subsidiary of UCC Holdings in Qatar, in collaboration with Karpowership International to rent the ship for two years.

GPL signed the contract on April 13 and has already paid a mobilisation fee of US$1 million for the vessel’s rental. The company will pay US 6.62 cents per kilowatt hour as a monthly charter fee for the powership, and a maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per kWh, based on electricity generated.

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Berbice River, Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS), Everton, Guyana Power and Light Inc’s (GPL’s)

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