36MW Power ship operating at 96% capacity to ensure reliable power supply – GPL’s CEO

The 36-megawatt (MW) power ship at Everton, Berbice, Region Six (East Berbice Corentyne) is operating at 96 per cent capacity and is expected to reach full capacity soon, according to acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) Kesh Nandlall.
The power ship started injecting power into the national grid in May. The vessel started injecting power into the national grid on May 9 and the plan was to incrementally increase the generating amount until the full 36 MW capacity is achieved.

Speaking with the Guyana Times on Tuesday, Nandlall explained that the ship’s generating capacity has been contributing significantly to the decrease in frequent power outages.
“Well, what it means is that we can deliver the power at 96% capacity onto the grid and that is powering the grid right now through our transmission network and distribution network… So, we were having a significant amount of load shedding as a result of generation shortfall. Right now that is not the case. We may have some intermittent outages which are relating to the transmission and distribution network from trips and so on,” the GPL CEO shared.
According to Nandlall, there were no major issues experienced since the ship started to operate.
“It’s really bringing reliability to an additional demand that has been created by the growth to the grid and so that we can also take some of our current engines down and do regular maintenance that we had, we have to do and we are able now, we have some capacity in place so that we can carefully plan out our maintenance programme and execute those programmes so that we bring reliability to the system in delivering power to consumers.”
He nevertheless stated that the power outages that occurred over the last month were due to countrywide maintenance.

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 national grid.
Three months ago, 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. While the rental deal was signed with UCI, the power ship is owned by Turkey-based Karpowership International.
As part of this agreement, GPL has already paid a US$1 million mobilisation fee.
The power company also has to pay a monthly charter fee of 6.62 US cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) 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.
Before this, the State-owned power company experienced generation shortfalls due to an unprecedented rise in electricity demand coupled with challenges from its aged equipment.
GPL was generating about 165 MW of power at the time; however, the peak demand is about 180 MW.