GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana government says it is seeking to acquire an additional 30 megawatts of electricity to support generation efforts as works continue to connect the Karpowership to supply 36 megawatts of electricity to the national grid.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told his weekly news conference on Thursday that the additional supply will also help supplement the heightened demand until the Gas to Energy project comes on stream in 2025.
“We are still examining whether we could add an additional 30 megawatts of power to the system in a similar arrangement to the one we have with Karpower,” Jagdeo said.
The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company has paid a mobilization fee of one million S dollars to rent the 36 MW power from Karpowership International, a Turkish company.
The utility has also confirmed that it will pay US6.62 cents per kilowatt hour as a monthly charter fee for the powers and a maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per kWh based on electricity generated.
“We are hoping that with the 36 megawatts added to the system, we’d have enough power to end the current state of blackouts which come from unavailability of power,” Jagdeo said.
Last month, Jagdeo acknowledged the disruptive impact of the recurrent power outages and assured the population that the Irfaan Ali government is determined to address the country’s electricity problems.
“The situation is bad. There is no sugarcoating this. We have a situation at GPL that we have explained 100 times before. But often, explanations don’t soothe people when the light goes off because it disrupts their lifestyle, their normal activities…I understand the feeling there,” he said.
He said the government has a clear plan to address the situation in the long and short term.
Jagdeo pointed to the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project, which is expected to deliver an estimated 165 megawatts of power.
GPL said that testing the engines, transformers, fuel, metering, and telecommunication systems on the powership has been completed. It said final testing is underway, and once completed, the team will commence dispatching power from the powership to the grid.
Jagdeo told reporters that, with peak demand at about 180 megawatts, the hallmark Gas to Energy project will supply another 300 megawatts, more than enough to resolve the country’s electricity woes definitively.
“That is, by any standard, a massive injection of new power, and from a new power plant too. So we could then put all of these older units into reserves…maintain and keep them in reserves,” he added.
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