With the impending start-up of the Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project, consumers could be seeing a 50 per cent reduction in Guyana Power and Light (GPL) rates by mid-2025.
This is according to Winston Brassington, who is leading on the GTE project.
Brassington was at the time making a presentation on day two of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo 2024.
According to him, the Gas-to-Energy project remains on track to have the major components, the pipeline and transmission works, be completed by this year.
“The pipeline and transmission work will be completed this year. The power plant and the NGL plant, using single cycle, will be online by the first half of next year. We’re projecting by April.”
“The culmination of all these projects, a little under $2 billion, will result in a 50 per cent reduction in GPL average tariffs, which we project can happen by mid next year,” Brassington further said.
This is even as the demand for energy in Guyana continues to grow. In fact, Brassington pointed out that based on GPL’s own projections, “by 2030, we will need almost 1000 megawatts of power to meet the constantly increasing demand that we’re seeing.”
This year alone, the electricity demand is projected to peak at 236 megawatts; however, GPL can generate approximately 180 megawatts of power.
In 2020, the power demand was around 120 megawatts and this grew to 136 megawatts in 2021; 156 megawatts in 2022; and then peaked at 184 megawatts in 2023. Last year’s peak was recorded when all industrial customers were on the grid.
And with electricity costs slated to be significantly reduced in the coming years, there will be a significant surge in the demand for power in the near future, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had previously outlined.
The scope of the Gas-to-Energy Project consists of the construction of 225 kilometres of pipeline from the Liza field in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where Exxon and its partners are currently producing oil.
It features approximately 200 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that will run from Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the shore. Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
The pipeline would be 12 inches wide, and is expected to transport per day some 50 million standard cubic feet (mscfpd) of dry gas to the NGL plant, but it has the capacity to push as much as 120 mscfpd. The pipeline’s route onshore would follow the same path as the fibre optic cables, and terminate at Hermitage.
