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 today oversaw the signing of a second agreement between the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) and UCC Holdings for a second powership to be deployed to Guyana in another month to assist in supplying the continuous increasing demand for reliable power in the country.
The powership 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.
The powership 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 today, Dr. 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 the growing economy’s 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.
“This PPP/C 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 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, 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 powership will assist the power company in better supplying the larger demand.
Meanwhile, UCC Holdings Representative Mr. Neto indicated that the company will be mobilizing as soon as possible to have the powership deployed to Guyana.
In addition to the two recent powerships and since 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, operationalizing the 46.5 megawatts at Garden of Eden in October, 2022, as well as procuring an additional 28.9 megawatts situated at Colombia.
