2nd power ship to arrive in Guyana this week

The second power ship which will provide electricity to the Demerara-Berbice-Interconnected System (DBIS) is expected to arrive at Port Georgetown this week. This is according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) GPL Kesh Nandlall.

Currently, 3.9 kilometres of transmission line are being constructed by a private contractor and according to Nandlall, work is on schedule.

“We are expecting to connect the ship before Christmas. We do not anticipate any difficulties so far.”

Nandlall said that workers are engaged on a 24-hour basis on a shift system to realise the power ship providing electricity to the national grid before Christmas.

On Sunday consumers in sections of Greater Georgetown experienced an 8-hour interruption in electricity supply as GPL conducted preparatory works for the arrival of a second power ship.

Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh on Saturday said that the demand for electricity from GPL has moved from almost 100 megawatts (MW) to almost 200 MW currently.

“There are new housing areas with hundreds of houses that are being brought onto the grid; we have new industrial and commercial investments including things like hotels, factories, warehouses, processing plants, etc. all of whom are coming onto the grid and demanding electricity. This has resulted in the skyrocketing electricity demand,” he said.

The current peak demand is 187 MW, while the available capacity is 194 MW.

Last month, GPL signed a contract with the Joint Venture of Turkish-based Karpowership Global DMCC and Qatar-based UCC Energy International LLC JV, to charter a second power ship with a total installed capacity of 75 MW for two years. In the first phase, the power ship will dispatch 60 MWs to the grid in approximately six weeks followed by an additional 15 MW, once works are completed on an additional transmission line.

The contract requires GPL to pay the Joint Venture 8.52 US cents per Kilowatt-hour (kWh) as a monthly charter fee for the new power ship and a monthly operation and maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per kWh, based on electricity generated. Under the contract, GPL is also responsible for providing Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) for the operation of the ship’s generators.

This second power ship will add to the 36 MW of electricity already being produced by the first floating power plant that is in the Berbice River.

Nandlall had previously told this publication that two generators with an aggregate capacity of 13 MW that are unavailable due to major overall will be back online by December 10 and 21. This he said will boost the generation capacity in the DBIS to207 MW.