Power supply plays a decisive role in ensuring societies’ economic output

Dear Editor,
The first priority of power plant management and operators is to produce energy for their customers efficiently and reliably, while creating business value and a good return for the company. The operating profile of a power plant is determined to serve these business needs, and together with the power plant management’s value proposition, it defines the best ways to organise the operations and maintenance of the facility.
Power plants’ maintenance and operational needs change during their lifecycle due to, for instance, potential changes in dispatch profile and the market environment.
This must be taken into account when ensuring the continued optimal operations of the plant after years of operation. There are advantages with conducting assessments of the power plant’s condition during its lifecycle in order to identify potential for modernisations that can improve the output level and cost-to output ratio.
A power plant management team has various options for extending the life cycle of the power plant, including equipment upgrades, fuel conversions and changes in operating profile. By customising the solution to meet the plant management and customer needs and suit the plant’s operating profile, its productivity and efficiency can be enhanced and its life cycle extended.
Power interruptions, such as small shortages or complete power failures, have an impact on society; but
industries also suffer considerably from power cuts. On average, the majority of power supply disruptions from transmission and distribution grids only endure for a few hours but complete shutdowns are not unusual in some parts of Guyana, both types of disruption directly impact production companies but also critical infrastructure systems such as telecommunication networks and water supply grids and hospitals.
The consequences of these interruptions for industry are lower productivity, inability to deliver services, higher maintenance costs and unsafe operating conditions for equipment.
Therefore, power supply plays a decisive role in ensuring societies’ economic output. A large number of industrial facilities around Guyana depend on their upstream power grid. In many industries and production businesses, power interruptions can cause extensive environmental, economic and safety-related impacts.
For mitigation, our PPP/C Government’s investments in local power generation are implemented, especially in remote locations where local backup systems are present to prevent disruptions at these facilities.

Sincerely,
David Adams