More power solutions needed as electricity demand grows in Bartica – Mayor

With the increase in population in the town of Bartica in Region 7 (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), electricity demand in the area has increased significantly prompting the need for additional power sources to effectively supply the town.
This is according to Bartica’s Mayor Anthony Murray on Monday during an exclusive interview with the Guyana Times.
Murray explained that the recent power outages that occurred in the town last week have highlighted the vulnerability of the local power supply. As such he contended that as the demand for electricity in the township grows, the relevant authorities will have to make the necessary investments to keep up.

“In the near future, I think they need a bigger much larger engine that could handle the capacity that is needed, and based on the report from the guys who came from Georgetown (GPL officials) I think they already started doing the evaluation for that so probably soon it will be purchased. Once everything finishes work through the process and do the procurement” the mayor stated.
He attributed the increase in electricity demand to several infrastructural developments in the township.
“We have new housing schemes coming on board, they also have other areas that persons are now applying for service connection and so forth, and the capacity is now warranted for a larger engine.”
Moreover, the mayor noted that an additional generator would be needed to facilitate repairs and maintenance to the generators at the plant, without disrupting the power supply of the plant in the interim.
“We always have to have one on the ground for standby because, when you have to do the servicing, you cannot take down all the engines. You take down one at a time so that standby will handle the load with the other one” he explained.
However, certain areas in Bartica are also powered by the 1.5-megawatt solar farm situated at Dagg Point. It was reported that this solar farm, which was commissioned in 2023, would provide clean, renewable energy to over 3000 residents of Bartica and its surrounding communities. However, according to the mayor, additional infrastructure is needed to truly maximise the capacity of that solar farm.
“We have the solar farm that they did launch but I think there is something that they have to relook at where the storing of the current is needed because if you have a cloud cover, that current that is being pushed by the solar is utilised quickly.”
Residents of Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) last Monday were left without electricity for approximately 16 hours in total following the shutdown of three of the four Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Bartica power plant generators.
GPL Inc stated: “The Guyana Power and Light wishes to apologise to our valued customers in Bartica for the recent service interruptions. The Bartica Power Plant has four engines: two are required to meet the demand, while two serve as a standby unit. Unfortunately, we have only one operational engine in conjunction with the solar farm.”
The unavailability of the three critical units significantly reduced the plant’s power-producing capabilities, which resulted in a ripple effect leaving communities across Bartica without electricity.
Anthony Murray at the time had revealed that power outages are not a common occurrence in the town. He noted that one of the backup generators at the plant was inoperable before the power outage, which would have contributed to the disruption of power. On this point, the mayor revealed plans to ensure a steady supply of power in the region.
“We have four sets of generators along with the solar farm, one of the generators went down a while ago, so we had the three that were working, I think once the generator which was down a while now is restored that will take care of any future problems, so that is the plan they had in store also to keep the machines well-kept and serviced and they (GPL) are currently thinking about bringing in two more backup generators to aid in situations like these,” the mayor stated.
Additionally, the Mayor was adamant that the power outage would not significantly affect businesses that operate in the region particularly large enterprises.
“Most of the big businesses would normally equip themselves with standby generators, so they will have those kicking in once GPL has an interruption of power supply, and of course, the smaller businesses learn to work with the schedule, they have been given a notice because the disruption doesn’t last too long,” the mayor asserted.