‘Major plans to eliminate blackouts to come on stream soon’

Ministry of Public Works

Press Release

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Prime Minister, Brig. (ret’d), Hon. Mark Phillips, and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Hon. Deodat Indar, were today briefed by the management of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) on the significant issues affecting the company, and plans to tackle these over the short, medium and long-term.

The meeting was held at the power company’s Executive Secretariat at Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown.

During the meeting, Minister Indar pointed out that the goal is to reduce blackouts countrywide and to address the structural and capacity issues affecting the company effectively.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Mr. Albert Gordon, highlighted that the vision is for GPL to become a world-class utility to assist in transforming the country to a first-world level.

Mr. Gordon noted that progress has been made to this end; however, significant infrastructural issues remain to be resolved.

For example, total system shutdowns have decreased significantly over the last three years. In the years 2017, 2018 and 2019, total system shutdowns were 25, 12 and 6, respectively. For the year 2020, so far, three have been experienced, and these were due to a contractor making contact with the critical L5 transmission line on February 25, unusual stormy weather on July 8, and, most recently, a fault on the submarine cable on August 16.

While noting that total system shutdowns decreased over the years, Mr. Gordon pointed to some of the constraints facing GPL.

“We have challenges at all levels of the supply chain; from fuel supply to power delivery to consumers. There is inadequate capacity, and lack of redundancy in the various systems, and these are to be addressed by the various projects going forward. We do not have adequate fuel storage capacity, and this makes it difficult for us to minimise the cost of fuel by way of the procurement process. We have a total of 110,000 barrels of storage presently at the various stations. An additional two million gallons are being constructed at Garden of Eden as part of the new project, and 1 million gallons are to be constructed at Kingston,” he explained.

Furthermore, it was explained that although 150 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity is installed, only 120 MW is considered reasonably reliably baseload capacity. The remainder is mainly small, old unreliable plants, some of which were brought back from retirement by the GPL engineering staff.

Given that the peak demand to date is 124.6 MW, and the demand is expected to grow at a more rapid pace over the next two years, the situation will get worse. The demand decreased somewhat because of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, it is beginning to pick up, with the increased economic activity. Just yesterday, the peak was 117MW, the team was told.

[In the photo, from right] Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL), Mr. Albert Gordon, Prime Minister, Brig. (ret’d), Hon. Mark Phillips, and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Hon. Deodat Indar.

[In the photo, from right] Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Hon. Deodat Indar, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL), Mr. Albert Gordon, address the media after the meeting.

Prime Minister, Brig. (ret’d), Hon. Mark Phillips, and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Hon. Deodat Indar, in a briefing with the Technical team at the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL).

In another two days, an additional 12 MW will be added to the grid since the generator will be fixed.

The technical staff at GPL explained that they expect the peak demand to increase to over 135 MW by October of this year, taking several factors into account.

Moving forward, GPL outlined plans for improvement in generation, transmission, and distribution systems across its operating areas, even as it expands service to unserved areas. These are included in its Development and Expansion Plan and will see the construction of new dual-fuel power stations, commencing with 46.5 MW plant at Garden of Eden, which is due for completion in April 2021.

Meanwhile, activities are underway to spearhead the development of gas to power and hydropower facilities to begin to take advantage of Guyana’s vast resources.

Prime Minister Phillips committed to supporting the plans of GPL and noted that funding will soon be made available to the agency. He was keen to note that the former APNU+AFC Coalition Administration neglected GPL and failed to invest in the power company, although it is in urgent need of generators.

Meanwhile, Minister Indar noted that only three Caterpillar sets were purchased over the last five years to the tune of approximately US$1Million. As a consequence, the Honourable Minister said that the demand for electricity is equal to the output, and in the event of a generator failure, hundreds of families suffer from blackouts.