Prime Minister (PM) Mark Phillips, who is currently performing the functions of President, said on Tuesday that he is unaware of any formal request by Lindsayca Guyana Inc for additional financing for the Gas-to-Energy (GtE) project at Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD).
In a brief interview with this publication, PM Phillips said no such request was made to his office, which is responsible for the energy sector.
He emphasised that should Lindsayca submit such a request and it is approved by the Government of Guyana, the decision will be communicated to the public.
A local media house had reported that the United States-based engineering firm has requested US$170M in additional financing from the Guyana Government to complete the project.
PM Phillips said he was unsure of the source of the information reported by the media entity.
Lindsayca is currently constructing the US$759 million GtE project, which comprises a 300-megawatt (MW) combined cycle power plant and a Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility.
PM Phillips, along with other officials, on Tuesday conducted a site visit where they gained a first-hand update on the progress being made. He told this publication, following the visit, that the project remains on track to deliver power by year-end.
Last month, the PM told a news conference that the project is expected to deliver 57MW of power by the end of this year, while the remainder will come onstream next year.
“At least one of the turbines will be spinning and generating 57MW in the first quarter of 2027,” PM Phillips had noted.
The power generation component will utilise four SGT-800 gas turbines paired with heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) and steam turbines operating in a combined-cycle configuration to produce a generation capacity of approximately 300MW. While the gas turbines are slated to all come online by mid-next year, the full 300MW capacity will be reached by the end of 2027 once the final combined-cycle configuration is completed.
The system has been engineered with built-in redundancy, allowing individual turbines to operate independently and be phased onto the national grid, which will ensure continuous and reliable power supply as well as a 50 per cent reduction in electricity costs. According to PM Phillips, Guyanese will start benefitting from this reduction in electricity prices once the project is fully online.
Currently, customers are receiving power from the national grid at $43.43 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for residential use and $56.38 per kWh for commercial use.
The first phase of the GtE Project will only utilise 40 per cent of the 250-kilometre of 12-inch pipeline’s capacity, bringing 50 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of dry gas onshore.
With the pipelines having the capacity to push as much as 120 mmscfd of gas, the Government has moved ahead with Phase Two to utilise the remaining 60 per cent capacity of the pipeline, which will see an additional 75 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of rich gas brought onshore for the second power plant and NGL facility right at the Wales location.
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