COVID-19 delays supply of new GPL generator sets – CEO

The company that was contracted to manufacture five generator sets to increase the power capacity of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), has faced some setbacks due to the coronavirus pandemic, as they seek to supply the order.

This was according to Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Albert Gordon on Tuesday, who told the media that the supplier had to change the manufacturing location, after the pandemic spiralled out of control in Italy.
The US$52 million Wartsila sets are expected to produce an additional 46 megawatts to the company’s capacity.
“We tried to fast track the new capacity but that is also being procured in the context of a pandemic so the supplier had some challenges. In fact, their first option was to manufacture the units in Italy and Italy got it real hard. So they moved the manufacturing to Finland. They’re pulling out the stops to get us the units as soon as possible,” Gordon said.
He went on to say that while these generators will boost capacity, some of the sets used currently only have about two years more before they are due for “retirement”. As such, they are acting in advance to replace such infrastructure.
“Based on where we are now and the age of some of the units, about 60 megawatts of what we have now was due for retirement or may be in the next year or two. We need firm capacity. If you need capacity, you need to act in advance.”
The CEO said in a period where Guyana’s economy is expected to see tremendous growth, it is imperative to have an adequate power supply to support the demand.
He insisted, “We expect the demand to grow very rapidly within the next couple of years as the economy opens up and as the benefits from the oil and gas sector start to impact the economy. We need to stay ahead of the demand so that we can give the people of Guyana first-class utility services with limited outages.”
The new generator sets will add capacity to the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS), which supplies electricity from the West Coast Demerara to the Corentyne Coast; and Kururu on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway and to Timehri, East Bank Demerara.
Junior Public Works Minister, Deodat Indar had voiced just three days ago that the $10 billion spent by the previous Government during the COVID-19 pandemic to purchase the five generators were yet to provide the expected value for money.
According to him, additional costs to complete works at the Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara site have to be factored in with the US$50 million price tag.
“The generating sets are not yet here. They are in Finland. They have been finished; I understand based on correspondence that I received that they have finished. But the issue here is the civil works. The civil works is a 10-month contract that runs till April 2021.”
The Minister explained that the sensible thing for the former Government to have done was to conduct the civil works first. The expenses to buy generating sets that the former Government forced GPL to incur could, therefore, have waited.
But aside from GPL having to take a loan for the sets, Indar pointed out that when the deal was negotiated, the then Government was in a caretaker status. Additionally, elections would have just been concluded and controversies arose, resulting in a five-month standoff with no President being sworn in.
The Junior Minister contended that as a consequence, the Government did not have the authority to be entering into contracts and burdening GPL with debt.
Wartsila, a Finnish company, had managed generators for GPL for about two decades before Government decided to handle it themselves. They were replaced by State company, Power Producers and Distributors Incorporated (PPDI) to manage four power plants – at Garden of Eden with 22 megawatts capacity, Kingston One with 22 megawatts, Kingston Two with 36.3 megawatts and Vreed-en-Hoop with 26.4 megawatts. PPDI is responsible for a total electrical output of 106.7 megawatts of power output. (G12)