In light of increasing power outages President Ali has sought to assure the public the government is committed to addressing the issues plaguing the Guyana Power and Light (GPL). “We are not shying away from the problem; we have to confront this issue… we are going to fix it,” the head of state said in a recent national address.
According to Ali, the challenging circumstances under which the utility company operates, is a situation where the government is attempting to catch up after five years of neglect by the former A Partnership of National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition Government. But Former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson is not accepting the prevailing blackouts, three-year into the Ali administration, is the fault of the coalition government.
Hogwash!!!
Patterson said it is “hogwash!!!;” the PPP government has no plan. In an article carried by Village Voice News on Monday, the shadow minister said when the coalition took over in 2015 the electricity sector was on the verge of collapse. “It was barely being powered by generating sets, some over 35 years old, which of course led to the complete unreliability of the system. The coalition administration spent the next five years from 2015 systematically rebuilding and improving the power sector using clear and workable solutions.”
Justifying his case, the former minister, who now has shadow ministerial responsibility for the sector stated: “In five years under the coalition administration, nine new generating sets totaling 63MW were purchased (Anna Regina – 5.4MW, Bartica – 3.4MW, Bellevue – 1.5MW, Canefield – 5.5MW and Garden of Eden (five sets) – 46.5MW). In 2015 the generating capacity of GPL was listed at 120 – 125MW, which means that in five short years, the coalition’s work increased the generating capacity of the company by 50%. Never in the history of the company has it enjoyed such a huge increase in generating capacity in such a short period.”
Maintenance of GPL
The president did not deny Patterson’s evidence but made the claim that the coalition did not invest in the system, contributing to the present woes. “Five years of not investing in the maintenance of the system, expanding the system, and at the same time building additional capacity to take care of the increasing demand.”
Patterson countered the claim, pointing out under the coalition “GPL’s improvement was not only limited to procurement of generators – during the same period, but the company was also able to reduce its technical and commercial line losses by 5%, which resulted in annual savings of G$450M.
The company, he said, also carried out an impressive maintenance programme on his watch, some of which he outlined below: –
- Almost all the transmission lines, over 300km, were repaired or upgraded – despite the big lie by the PPP, that no maintenance work was done on the transmission lines in the last four years. This lie being used as a pretext to hire foreign contractors at huge costs thus bypassing our local contractors and inhouse staff, who were providing yeoman service until 2020.
- Construction of 16km of new feeder cables between Vreed-en-hoop and Vriesland.
- Installation and upgrade of the express feeders on the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System.
- Installation of a new 13.8kv submarine cable between Vreed-en-Hoop and Princess Street to provide redundancy due to the very poorly thought out and installed cable between Vreed-en-Hoop and Kingston, a cable that continues to be damaged on a regular basis.
- Installation of 486km of new primary distribution lines and upgrade of 272km of primary distribution lines.
- Installation of 231km of new secondary distribution lines and upgrade of 519km of secondary distribution lines.
- Replacement of 87,717 service lines.
- Installation of 502 new transformers and replacement of 2,292 defective transformers.”
GPL Finances
The head of state claimed when the PPP took office in August 2020, it discovered that the arrears owed to GPL by the government agencies alone amounted to $13 billion, a situation that had pushed the utility company to the brink of financial collapse. The situation, he said, led to the administration subsidizing the company by over US$100 million, and all taxes were removed from fuel and VAT was stripped from electricity, among other support. “However, due to the country’s development, there is an increased demand for energy.”
Patterson made known the increase in generating capacity in electricity under the coalition government “was financed without any external loans.”
US$155M in loans were taken on behalf of GPL under the PPP government he stated. “This entire amount was mismanaged due to a lack of vision and corruption, resulting in the broken system pre-2015. On average, US$22M per year in loans was given to GPL during this period, yet our power sector was on life support in 2015.”
Chastising the government for not having a plan for the sector, the shadow minister stated under the coalition government “not only was GPL able to increase their generating capacity by 50% in 5 years, but they started repaying the interest on these loans. Commencing in 2015, GPL started to repay the people of Guyana US$5M per year towards this massive debt and were still able to advance their work program – that’s what having a sound and workable plan should be.”
President Ali’s ‘truth’
“Truth be told, the pace at which we are going would require us to double our capacity as quickly as possible,” the president said.
Understanding the challenges faced by the current system, the president said his administration continues to make significant investments in the energy sector. He noted the gas-to-energy project at Wales, Region Three, which aims to provide 300 megawatts of power, further boosting the system.
“A 12-inch pipeline, stretching approximately 200km offshore, will transport natural gas from the Liza Phase One and Liza Phase Two Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessels to the power plant and Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility.
“Additionally, a 24-kilometre transmission line from Wales to Eccles will be installed to support the gas-to-energy project. This will be followed by a 60-kilometre transmission line from Wales to Vreed-en-Hoop.
“A grid-tied system is also being explored to generate solar energy in Essequibo, Berbice, and Linden. The tender for this project has recently closed.
According to the president, with new capacity installed in the last three years, including the restoration of two engines at Garden of Eden, GPL has found that peak demand has moved from 110mw to 185mw. The company is generating 10mw below that peak demand.
The president said high-volume consumers should consider returning to self-generation during peak hours, particularly from 13:00 to 15:00 and 18:00 to 22:00 hrs, to reduce outages in residential communities.
As a temporary measure, the head of state said large consumers may face an additional cost of 10 cents per kilowatt once they choose to remain on the grid.
Plans coalition administration left in place
Patterson said the coalition administration left a plan in place which the PPP is slavishly following yet seeking to claim as their own.
According to him, “The Kingdom of Norway was so impressed with the coalition administration’s Energy Diversification Program, our roadmap to transition from Heavy Fuel generation to 100% Renewable Energy (yes, the same study that the PPP claimed to have used to justify their proposed white elephant Wales Gas to Shore project), that they immediately committed to use some of the US$80M, previously set aside for the equally short-sighted Amaila Falls Hydro to construct 3 x 10MW solar farms.”
Throwing out a challenge, Patterson said “it will be interesting to see how the PPP will try to convince Norway to reallocate these funds back to the Amaila Falls project since Norway acknowledged that the coalition’s energy plans were far superior to anything that the PPP had conceived.”
The undermentioned the member of parliament said was conceptualised by the coalition administration, who had a clear, transparent, and workable plan to address the country’s energy needs.
- The 1.5MW hybrid solar power plant for Wakenaam.
- The 1MW hybrid solar power plant for Leguan
- The 4MW solar power plant for Fort Wellington.
- The 1.5MW solar power plant for Bartica.
- Construction of four new substations with associated high voltage transmission lines.
