Experts onboard the power ship monitoring the connection to the grid (GPL Photo)
The 36-megawatt (MW) power ship has been successfully connected to the Guyana Power and Light’s grid, generating some 18MW of electricity.
This was announced by GPL in a post on its Facebook page on Saturday.
According to the State-run power company, “Currently, 18 MW of generation from the power ship is injected into the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).”
GPL added that the remaining generation would be added to the grid incrementally during the course of the coming week.
The power company said in addition to its internal Engineering Services Division, Transmission and Distribution, and Protection and Instrumentation employees, the National Data Management Authority (NDMA); GAICO Construction and General Services Inc and E-Networks made an “invaluable contribution” towards realising this initiative.
The transmission lines from the power ship connecting to GPL’s DBIS network at Everton, Berbice
The floating power plant arrived in Guyana on May 1 and has been docked at Everton on the East Bank of Berbice in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), where it will be stationed for the next two years as it sends electricity into the DBIS.
Over the past few weeks, GPL has been preparing the necessary infrastructure for the 36-MW power ship to be connected to the national grid.
GPL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kesh Nandlall told this publication on Saturday evening that the vessel had been connected to the grid since Thursday, but that connection had been on and off.
“There was a lot of testing that had to be done, synchronising [the ship] to the grid so we had been working throughout Thursday night to ensure everything is working well, because that is a lot of power – it’s a new power plant so you had to ensure you do all the testing and procedures and so on,” the GPL Head explained.
GPL had said on Thursday that it completed testing the engines, transformers, fuel, metering, and telecommunication systems on the power ship.
The 36-megawatt power ship docked at Everton, Berbice
Nevertheless, as efforts continue to gradually push the vessel’s generation to its 36-MW capacity, Nandlall noted that specialists have been brought in to ensure that this was done without any hiccups.
“They are taking their time, documenting the procedure and they will execute this successfully,” he assured.
Nandlall further stated that during the process of connecting the power ship to the grid, including the testing phase, there was no major issue encountered.
Only Thursday, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, during his weekly press conference, said the Government hoped that this connection would be able to stop the frequent blackouts experienced by Guyanese in recent months as a result of low generating capacity. In the same breath, however, he said there could still be some power outages.
“We’re hoping that with the 36 megawatts now added to the system, that we’ll have enough power in the system to end the current spate of blackouts which comes from the unavailability of power… There may be isolated instances, because of the poor transmission and distribution system,” he stated.
Jagdeo said the Government was still looking to get an additional 30 megawatts of power through a similar arrangement until the much-anticipated Gas-to-Energy Project comes on stream next year.
Last month, GPL signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Qatar-based Urbacon Concessions Investments, W.L.L (UCI) for the rental of the 36-MW floating power plant for two years in a move to add much-needed capacity to the grid.
As part of that deal, GPL has already paid a US$1 million mobilisation fee. The power company also has to pay a fee of 6.62 US cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as a monthly charter fee for the power ship and a monthly operation and maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per kWh based on electricity generated. GPL is also required to provide Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) for the operation of the generators onboard the vessel.
The State-run power company has been experiencing generation shortfalls due to an unprecedented rise in electricity demand coupled with challenges from its aged equipment. In March, two of GPL’s engines failed disrupting power generation across the country.
Before this vessel connected to the grid, GPL was generating about 165 megawatts of power. However, the peak demand is about 180 megawatts.
