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GPL pre-qualifying contractors for major upgrades to electricity grid 

Jun 04, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – As electricity outages continue to plague the nation even—with the addition of 36MW rented powership connected to the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (BDIS)—the Guyana Power and Light Inc., (GPL), is looking to pre-qualify contractors for several major upgrades.

These include the installing of 10.5 kilometers of 69 Kilovolt (kV) transmission lines across the Demerara and Berbice Rivers.

Additionally, the power company has indicated an intention to construct 42 km of 69 kV transmission lines. Other identified works include number of substations, feeders, battery and energy storage systems in addition to a hotline service among other initiatives.

According to the request for Expressions of Interest (EOI) by GPL, the works aim to satisfy the minimum requirements of providing Capital Financing and. or Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) services in order to be able to execute the propose projects.

It was pointed out however that “the present call for an EOI is not an invitation to tender, Only Bidders deemed qualified at this stage will receive details informing them of the next stage of this process—Request for Bids (RFB).”

With this in mind, GPL said it “invites technically and/or financially sound proponents to submit Expressions of Interest relative to the list of Infrastructural Development Projects.”

The closing date for interested parties set by GPL is June 20, at which point in time the documents will be publicly opened at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).

The public request comes on the heels of recent pronouncements by the utility company’s Chief Executive Officer Kesh Nandlall, when he appeared before the Parliamentary Economic Services Committee and highlighted that the company had experienced a 24 percent increase in demand from 2019 to 2023, compared to a 14.9 percent increase from 2015 to 2018, a surge, he said, significantly pressured the GPL system.

He disclosed that according to GPL statistics, it indicate that DBIS peak demand reached 153.3 megawatts (MW) in 2022 and grew to 186 MW by the end of 2023. This year, demand is expected to rise to 232 MW, according to Nandlall.

The gross generation for GPL is projected to increase at an annual average rate of 20 percent from 2024 to 2028, with DBIS gross generation forecast to grow at an average of 21 percent annually, and peak demand by 18 percent.

Nandlall used the occasion to also explain that DBIS’s current available capacity is 209.4 MW. This includes contributions from the rented powership adding 36 MW, the Columbia power plant with 20.8 MW (full capacity is 28.9 MW), the Wartsila plant commissioned in 2021 adding 46.5 MW, and four Caterpillar sets added in 2023 providing approximately 5 MW.

As of May 7, 2024, peak demand reached 183.2 MW – the highest for the year so far while GPL requires a spinning reserve of 27.71 MW.

As such, “To meet the current peak demand of 183.2 MW plus the 27.71 MW spinning reserve comfortably, we need 210.91 MW, which we are currently achieving,” Nandlall stated.

Nandlall at the time also outlined GPL’s plans for the remainder of the year to maintain and add capacity. “By the end of May, the Columbia plant will commission an additional 8.1 MW, and one unit at Kingstown will add 6.9 MW, bringing available generation to 224.4 MW,” he said.

He disclosed too that by the end of next month, another engine would be operational, adding 5.5 MW and increasing total available capacity to 229.9 MW. Adumbrating further, he projected, “By the end of December, all maintenance issues should be resolved, and we should have 245.1 MW.”

 

 

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