Electricity demand surges to record high of over 246MW – Min Indar

– drilling works advance for new 69kV submarine cable across Demerara River

The demand for electricity across Guyana continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, with the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) – the country’s national grid – recording its highest-ever peak demand of 246.2 megawatts (MW) a few days ago, according to Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar.
“[Thursday] night at about 20:45h, we saw the demand rise to 246.2MW – the highest recorded in history since our Republic,” Indar stated on Friday while inspecting work for the installation of a new 69 kilovolt (kV) submarine cable across the Demerara River.
According to the Public Utilities Minister, the Government, through the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc, is now working on putting the necessary infrastructure in place to deal with this rapidly growing electricity demand across the country.
Peak demand had been ranging between approximately 235MW and 240MW, but in recent weeks, it has surged to about 242.64MW – an increase from last year’s 221MW. This record growth in power demand is driven primarily by a growing customer base and current hotter-than-ever El Niño conditions.
Earlier this month, it was reported that some 256MW of generation capacity were available in the system. Since then, however, GPL has added another 9.3MW of new generation capacity, bringing the current available capacity to approximately 266.3MW.
This additional capacity provides the power company with an improved generation reserve as electricity demand continues to grow. In fact, peak demand is expected to climb to about 266MW between August and October.
To this end, GPL is gearing up to increase generation capacity to approximately 280MW in the coming weeks. On Friday, GPL received a donation of six one-MW generation sets from Chinese operators Bosai Minerals Group Guyana Inc and Guyana Manganese Inc (GMI) to boost power supply in Region 10 and along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.
In addition, BOSAI, which supplies power in Linden, has already committed to providing another 3MW of power through two 1.5MW engines, one of which has already been installed and operationalised at the company’s Linden powerhouse.
Work is continuing to bring the second 1.5MW engine into operation, which will increase Bosai’s total output to the Linden and Wismar communities to approximately 17MW, above the current peak demand of approximately 15.1MW.
Additionally, work will also commence on the planting of poles for GPL’s F5 Feeder, which distributes power from the Garden of Eden Substation to Timehri and the communities along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.
Meanwhile, Region Four is receiving 70MW from the power ship in the Demerara River, which is helping to stabilise the grid, while an additional 5MW is expected to be added by today, August 30.
In Region Two, the procurement process for an additional 8MW of generation capacity is currently in its final stage. This intervention is intended to further strengthen generation availability and reliability within the region.
Another 2MW will also be added at Anna Regina through support from the mining company GMI. This additional capacity will allow for maintenance to be conducted on a number of smaller generating sets that have been operating beyond their recommended limits and are due for overhaul.
Over in Region Six, a 2.2MW engine has been installed to maintain voltage stability, thereby increasing generation capacity across Berbice. In Region Three, work for the laying of a second submarine cable has commenced and is advancing. The installation of this new 69kV submarine cable across the Demerara River is a first-of-its-kind transmission crossing in the country.
The cable will run along the riverbed of the Demerara River from the Princess Street Substation in Greater Georgetown to the Vreed-en-Hoop Substation on the West Bank of Demerara and will facilitate the transmission of some 7MW of power.
On Friday, Minister Indar joined GPL executives and other officials to inspect drilling works being executed on the Vreed-en-Hoop side. He explained that this project will strengthen the movement of electricity between Regions Three and Four, support a more resilient transmission network, and respond to rising electricity demand.
Also, part of the visiting team was GPL’s Executive Management Committee Team Leader Kesh Nandlall, GPL Director Gary Hall, and Rafael Nabi of Capital Edge Partners. During the visit, the officials received an update on the drilling operations from Shayne Hicks of HDDT International.
The double-circuit cable will be installed approximately 75 feet below the riverbed using horizontal directional drilling (HDD) – a trenchless technique that leaves the river and its traffic completely undisturbed. The project also includes the expansion of both the Vreed-en-Hoop and Kingston substations to receive and dispatch the additional power, including a new 69kV GIS installation at Kingston.
According to the power company, “The new cable is a strategic investment in the architecture of the national grid. It will provide a redundant transmission path for power from the Gas-to-Energy plant at Wales so that supply to customers can be maintained even if one link is out of service – and it is a cornerstone of GPL’s plan to build a resilient, interconnected grid network for the long term, replacing a river crossing that is decades old and limited in capacity.”
The investment comes as electricity demand grows strongly across the system, with consumption in West Demerara rising from 25MW to 41MW in recent months.
Moreover, with the new cable sitting some 75 feet beneath the riverbed – far below the existing cable that runs from Vreed-en-Hoop to the Kingston Power Station – it clears the way for the long-awaited dredging of the Demerara River channel by the Government, thus opening the waterways to deeper-draft vessels in support of Guyana’s expanding trade and shipping.
This new crossing forms part of GPL’s strategic build-out of the national grid, which includes new substations, transmission lines, distribution feeders and battery storage now under construction across the country to serve Guyana’s fast-growing homes, businesses and industry.