People’s Progressive Party’s General Secretary, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has assured that the full installation of the remaining generators, amounting to a significant 28.9 megawatts, will be completed by March.
He was responding to misinformation spread by the opposition that taxpayers’ money was squandered on the purchase of these generators.
Dr Jagdeo criticized the opposition for their lack of research since 10 megawatts of the total energy supply have already been installed and are currently operational.
Once fully operational, the installed capacity is projected to provide a significant boost to the overall power supply on the coast.
“The completion date was February for the installation of this. It’s been delayed by a month … over the course of this month and by the first week, that’s what GPL said, all 28 megawatts should be in the system,” Dr Jagdeo relayed.
He explained that the installation process was delayed by a month due to procurement challenges, including the late delivery of transformers that was caused by the drying up of the Panama Canal.
Dr Jagdeo emphasised that the previous government did little to enhance the national grid’s capacity and only made a purchase of 47 or 50 megawatts of power after losing office, which the current government had to install.
“They basically did nothing for five years. Now while we’re working on the gas-to-energy project, we have to bring in emergency power,” he expounded.
The government injected US$27 million to boost the generation capacity of GPL following the increased demand for power.
In late December 2023, 76 containers with engines, totalling 28.9 MW, along with radiators, fuel and lube oil separators arrived on Guyana’s shores and were transported immediately to the Columbia, East Coast Demerara substation for installation.
These generator sets were procured from Apan Energy Service. (DPI)
