Gov’t hoping to get additional power supply installed in time for Christmas

Guyanese will soon benefit from addition power supply to the national grid with the addition of another power ship.

This is according to General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo during a recent press conference.

This new power ship is expected to bring some 60 megawatts (MW) of new power to the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).

Dr Jagdeo explained that the government has received a bid from the same Turkish company that supplied the current operating power ship.

Additionally, five kilometres of transmission mains are also being built and according to Dr Jagdeo, this project is set for completion in six weeks.

“Their material is often not here in the country, so they are using some spare material now. We are borrowing now because, you know, to procure a lot of the material, the transformers, the poles – these are concrete poles and such – it takes time. We are hoping that in six weeks, or maybe a month, the power ship could be here and turned on before Christmas,” he told reporters.

In addition to the 60 MW that this new power ship is expected to bring, it is possible that another 75 MW will be added after building another piece of transmission main.

“So, that will be for two years too, like the 36, and will take us just beyond the period when the new plant comes into stream,” he said.

Once this happens, the general secretary reasoned that the older plants currently in operation can be dismantled for maintenance and fortification.

“So, that is moving forward; the contract has been awarded to do the transmission mains, and a contract would have gone to cabinet to move forward with the negotiations to complete the deal with the power ship,” he affirmed.

Earlier this year, 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 Karpower ship International to rent the ship for two years.

The power ship was connected to the country’s main interconnected system through Everton, East Bank Berbice.