…contract signed ahead of holiday surge
Ahead of the upcoming high-demand holiday season, the Government has inked another contract with Qatar-based UCC Holdings for the supply of a second power ship, which would deliver some 75 megawatts of power to the national grid.
The contract was signed on Wednesday between the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) and UCC Holdings, which had supplied the 35-megawatt power ship that is currently operating in the Berbice River.
Head of the GPL Executive Management Committee, Kesh Nandlall, and UCC Holdings’ Managing Director of the Americas, Antonio Neto, inked the deal in the presence of Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh; Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar; and other officials at the state-owned power company’s Duke Street, Georgetown office.
In a statement from the Finance Ministry, it was revealed that this new 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. Another 15 additional megawatts of power would be delivered to the grid in the second phase, bringing to 75 megawatts the total amount to be supplied.
According to the missive, this second floating power plant will be “…deployed to Guyana in another month to assist in supplying the continuous increasing demand for reliable power in the country.”
Only last week, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo disclosed that works have already commenced to prepare for the arrival of the second floating power plant. He explained that five kilometres of transmission mains are being built to accommodate the vessel.
“Their material is often not here in the country, so they are using some spare material now. We are borrowing now, because, you know, to procure a lot of the material, the transformers, the poles – these are concrete poles and such – it takes time. We are hoping that in six weeks, or maybe a month, the power ship could be here and turned on before Christmas,” he told reporters.
Growing demands
Speaking at Wednesday’s signing ceremony, Minister Singh pointed out that Government would continue to supply the country’s growing demand in the short term as it continues to work on meeting the growing economy’s demands in the longer term through larger projects such as the Gas-to-Energy (GtE) Project.
“President [Dr Irfaan] 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 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 in to 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.
Dr Singh went on to note that for the longer-term, Government expects that its highly anticipated GtE Project would deliver an additional 300 megawatts of power to the country when it comes on stream next year.
“This PPP/C (People’s Progressive Party/Civic) government is looking even further and projecting what we anticipate will be the demand for electricity further down the road; and in that regard, we anticipate that there will be need for even more power, so we have gone out with another request for proposal for additional generating capability that will help us again to better be able to meet the long-term needs,” Dr Singh concluded.
Also delivering remarks, 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.
Meanwhile, the UCC Holdings representative indicated that the company would be mobilizing the vessel as soon as possible to have the power ship deployed to Guyana.
This power ship will be the second one that Government, through GPL, has chartered to assist in offsetting generation shortfalls of the national grid. Through an agreement with the consortium, the first power ship was deployed to Guyana in May of this year, and is currently stationed at Everton in the Berbice River.
The floating power plant has been supplying 36 megawatts of electricity to the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).
As part of that agreement, GPL had paid a US$1 million mobilisation fee, a fee of 6.62 US cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as a monthly charter fee for the vessel, and a monthly operation and maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per kWh based on electricity generated.
Additionally, GPL is required to provide Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) for the operation of the generators onboard the vessel.
It is unclear what are the terms of the new deal for the second floating power plant. Efforts to contact GPL’s Nandlall for additional information on the contract were futile.
Meanwhile, in addition to the two recent power ships, and since it assumed office in 2020, the PPP/C Administration 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, East Bank Demerara in October 2022, as well as procuring an additional 28.9 megawatts of generators at the Columbia substation at Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara. (G8)
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