There has been a lot of debate on Guyana’s Amaila Falls Project, which is currently in a state of jeopardy since its main investor – Sithe Global withdrew.
iNews would like to know what you, our readers have to say about this project.
Do you think it is a good investment for Guyana? Listed below are the facts of the project:
Today, GPL incurs an electricity generating cost of US$19c per kw/h. With Amaila Falls Hydro, GPL’s cost of electricity can be dramatically reduced, to:
• 11c per kw/h in the first twelve years, 40% less than today
• 5.6c per kw/h in the next eight years, 71% less than today
• 1.8 c per kw/h for the following eighty years, 91% less than today
As a result, the Amaila project can:
• Reduce electricity bills for Guyanese consumers and businesses – average tariffs for consumers will come down by at least 20% within two years of commercial operation of the hydro
• Eliminate the need for Guyanese taxpayers to subsidise GPL. In 2012, the subsidy cost taxpayers over 6 billion dollars. This will no longer be needed, and the money can be invested in other important national priorities, such as roads, schools and hospitals
• Greatly reduce Guyana’s dependence on foreign oil, and insulate the economy from the risk of rising oil prices. Unlike oil, the price of Amaila’s electricity will go down over the next twenty years.
• Reduce black-outs. To avoid outages, the plant has:
– Four individual units and full redundancy in the auxiliary systems
– Two transmission lines, each capable of transmitting 100% of the plant’s output
• Transform Guyana’s electricity sector from being fully oil-dependent to one built on clean, renewable energy. As the flagship of the Low Carbon Development Strategy, Amaila will enable reductions in Guyana’s greenhouse gases from electricity generation by approximately 90%
• Support business growth in the processing and manufacturing industries, and create new jobs
• Send a positive message to large global investors that Guyana is open for investment and set a new standard for the size of investment possible in Guyana
• Be constructed without any debt being incurred by the citizens of Guyana. The plant will be fully paid for by the sale of electricity – at prices far cheaper than today
• Be fully owned by the people of Guyana twenty years after operations begin
• Last for at least a hundred years – providing affordable, reliable energy for generations to come.
