Questions on New Generators for GPL

Dear Editor,

My husband who is employed at GPL informed me that the eighteen (18) used power generators that were purchased in Trinidad arrived before Christmas. They were supposed to be up and running to bolster the grid for the holiday season. All of them have not been put on stream and now we are into February. They were not operational for the holiday season, and the country was not severely affected by blackouts. So why order the power generators?

The government paid US$27M ($1.5 M each) for the order of these 18 used power generators for GPL from a favoured company in Trinidad. They were sitting for a long time unused in Trinidad and needed repairs. They were to be rehabilitated and brought to Guyana to produce 27 megawatts (MW), or 1.5 MW each, of electricity. Instead, they arrived dysfunctional. Five were repaired in Guyana by GPL engineers and made operational mid-January producing only one MW current each as opposed to the expected 1.5 MW as contracted.

In Sum, Guyana paid US$27 Millions to produce 27 MG power to be added to the grid but only got five MG. Is that value for money? Who made the order and why? Why use power generators? Why was the Trinidadian company selected? Why not new generators from the USA that were also selling at the same price as the old, used generators from Trinidad and that would have been more efficient and given the required 1.5 MG each?

Yours truly,

Sharmila Ally