Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh, and Minister within the Ministry of Public Works. Mr. Deodat Indar yesterday oversaw the signing of a second agreement between the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) and UCC Holdings for a second power-ship to be deployed to Guyana in another month to assist in supplying the continuous increasing demand for reliable power in the country.
The Government in a statement said the power-ship will be stationed in the Demerara River and will in its first phase, deliver 60 megawatts of generating capacity to the national grid while in its second phase, 15 additional megawatts of power will be delivered to the grid, bringing the total amount to be supplied to 75 megawatts. Signing the agreement at GPL’s Duke Street office were its Executive Management Committee Head Mr. Kesh Nandlall and Managing Director of the Americas, UCC Holdings Mr. Antonio Neto.
This will be the second one that Government, through GPL, has chartered to assist in offsetting generation shortfalls of the national grid. The first was deployed to Guyana in May this year and stationed in the Berbice River through an agreement with the consortium. This has been supplying 36 megawatts of power to the Demerara to Berbice interconnected grid.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Singh pointed out that Government will continue to supply the country’s growing demand in the short term as it continues to work on meeting growing demands in the longer term through larger projects such as the Gas to Energy Project.
“President Ali’s instructions are very clear that in the first instance. we must meet the immediate demand for electricity, and where that means bringing in emergency power, we must bring in that emergency power. And secondly, we must make the investments that are needed for the medium- and longer-term demand that we will see for electricity,” the finance minister explained as he outlined the various actions the government has taken thus far.
“On the short-term side, you’ve seen the several sets we have brought in and commissioned since we came into office including the floating sets on the Berbice River concluded with the consortium, that power ship is now supplying 36 megawatts of reliable power to the Demerara to Berbice interconnected system. But even at the time that we plugged in that ship we said very clearly that the demand will continue to grow and that we will need more power,” he added.
He noted that for the longer-term Government anticipates that its Gas to Energy Project, once it comes on stream will deliver an additional 300 megawatts of power to the country.
Blame game continues on poor power supply as Guyanese continue to suffer
Also speaking at the signing, Minister Indar pointed to the importance of Government providing the generating capability for the country to accommodate the current growth in demand as well as future demand and especially with the holidays fast approaching.
He added that at the time the PPP/C Government took office, generating capacity was between 96 to 100 megawatts with a demand of 115/116 megawatts. Since then, he said, through government’s interventions and initiatives to enable baseload capacity, and with peak demand now at about 205 megawatts, another 75 megawatts being added to the grid through this second power-ship will assist the power company in better supplying the larger demand.
In addition to the two recent power-ships the Government said it assumed office in 2020, the PPP/C has implemented several initiatives in order to bring immediate relief to citizens, including installing 10 megawatts of emergency power, operationalising the 46.5 megawatts at Garden of Eden in October, 2022, as well as procuring an additional 28.9 megawatts situated at Colombia.
The Government’s back and forth about what it inherited from the previous administration, the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) who was in office for five years, ignored the coalition government that inherited a poor electricity system, put systems in placed to fix the problems, some of which were since disbanded. The Government continues to ignore and fails to hold itself accountable to the promise made by Prime Minister Mark Phillips in October 2020 to fix the electricity system.
Last month, another promise was made by the prime minister who has responsibility for the electricity sector. Meanwhile, Guyanese continue to suffer for widespread power outages, resulting in damage to electrical appliances and perishable foods.
Guyana is ranked the world’s fastest growing economy and the richest per capita with the exploitation of oil and gas yet the Government cannot provide or guarantee Guyanese basic supply of reliable and reasonably cost electricity.
UCC Holdings Representative Mr. Neto indicated that the company will be mobilising as soon as possible to have the power-ship deployed to Guyana.
