200MW gas-to-energy project for December 2024 completion – Prime Minister

Guyana’s 200 megawatt gas-to-energy project is set to be completed by December 2024, Prime Minister, Brigadier (ret’d) Mark disclosed on Friday during a tour of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Garden of Eden Power Station.

“By the estimations of the studies done so far, the gas-to-shore project itself will increase by 200 megawatts to what we are getting now and by December 2024, we will have that project completed in Guyana,” the Prime Minister said.

The country’s peak demand for power is currently 125 megawatts.
Meanwhile, the US$52 million 46.5-megawatt (MW) power plant which is being constructed at the Power Company’s Garden of Eden Power Station is on track for its April 2021 completion date thereby putting the GPL one step closer to providing more reliable electricity.
The state-of-the-art power plant which is being constructed by Wärtsilä will have dual fuel energy. This means that it would have the capacity to utilise heavy fuel oil and natural gas simultaneously.

“With a project like this and many projects that we have planned, we will reach to a point where electricity will be 100 per cent reliable and there will be no power outages,” the Prime Minister who was accompanied by GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Albert Gordon said.
He said the Government will continue to support the strategic development of GPL, to the benefit of all Guyanese.
The Garden of Eden project has four components: the construction of engines by Wärtsilä which is about 60 per cent completed and arrive in Guyana by mid-November; the construction of below zero civil works which is 36 per cent completed and will be completed when the engine arrives for the 2021 commissioning; the construction of the above ground civil works which will start this month and scheduled to be completed by April 2021 and the transporting of the transmission, transformers and other equipment.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer – Strategic Operations, Samaroo Ramtahal, said “The commissioning process is actually a lengthy process and the commissioning will start from February 2021. So, there will be testing from February to the end of April”.

Ramtahal said, “We are about two per cent behind the project schedule, which is approximately a week delay and some of that is because of the COVID-19 restrictions, staffing and bad weather. So, we are very much on track to deliver this project for April of next year.”

The engines at the Garden of Eden Power Plant were constructed by Wärtsilä 26 years ago and have a capacity of over 22 Megawatts.
Meanwhile, Gary Hall, Divisional Director, Administration of Power Producers and Distributors limited (PPDI), said there has already been a significant overhaul to the power generation system for 2020, which will result in a stable supply of power by December.

“We have had to do eleven overhauls this year… we have at least three to finish before the end of the year, all of our maintenance activity should be finished on or before the first week of December, so we should have full generation availability,” he said.