…as UNDP project to improve GPL to commence
later this year
A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project aimed at, among other things, improving the Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) performance is expected to get underway in a matter of months. However, some hurdles remain to integrating renewable energy into the national grid.
This was ventilated when various Government agencies gave an account to the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Relations on Friday for Guyana’s policies aimed at producing a ‘green state’. Already, cold water has figuratively been thrown on expectations that Guyana can be 100 per cent renewable energy powered by 2025.
One of the hurdles pointed out by Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) Economist Shevonne Wood, who was present, was the risk that the national grid could become unstable when renewable energy is integrated into it. However, Guyana has, for almost a decade, been successfully integrating renewable energy into the grid as a result of the Skeldon Co-generation plant, a brainchild of former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
It is a fact that was highlighted by committee chairperson Gail Teixeira, who noted that there is a paucity of up-to-date information on the entity’s operations. With the closure of several estates and mass laying off of sugar workers, Teixeira questioned whether the facility has had a reduction in its supply of bagasse, a sugar cane derivative used as a renewable energy source.
This publication has been reliably informed, however, that as a result of persisting factors which have led to repairs and upgrades being effected at the facility, there has been limited supply of energy from the entity. The co-generation plant, sources say, has had to scale back some of its operations.
Wood also gave some details on how Government approaches the issue of integrating, including the approach towards connecting to the grid. She noted that a strict policy was recommended to ensure technical parameters are not breached.
“That’s where one of the studies for renewable energy and power generation came into play… the recommendation was to have a grid code and then to set up to certain technical parameters. So what GPL did subsequent to that, they would have allowed persons to have applications with a (power) of 100 MW, to understand how reliable the grid is to accommodate that type of technology.
“It is definitely a policy to have that type of application, but also to ensure that the grid is reliable and able to have that redundancy or stand by reserve, so that any injection of renewable energy wouldn’t cause a shut down,” she related.
UNDP
Meanwhile, Office of Climate Change (OCC) head, Janelle Christian, informed the committee that work has been ongoing to secure funding from international partners. In particular, she spoke of a United Nations Development Programme to mobilise climate change allocation resources,
“So we’ve prepared what is called mainstreaming emissions technology. In this particular project, we’ll be looking to address institutional policy and capacity gaps that the Guyana Power and Light, the Guyana Energy Agency, the Hinterland Electrification Company are experiencing as we seek to advise on the 100 per cent renewable energy ambition by 2025.
“This has been approved, and we expect to start implementation by October or November of this year. UNDP would have recently closed the Ad for Project Manager for this project,” Christian informed the committee.
GPL was subject to another project, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded Power Utility Upgrade Programme (PUUP) that was initiated in 2014 at a cost of US$64 million. However, power outages still disrupt the lives of many Guyanese intermittently.
At a Public Utilities Commission (PUC) hearing earlier this year, GPL had said that over the next three years, it would roll out about 80,000 smart meters, which would have radio transmitting capacity to send out data.
It was pointed out that the smart meters would allow GPL to better monitor its feeder system, each of which was supposed to have only 4000 costumers. Other measures GPL announced to improve its services included splitting existing feeders, rehabilitation of its distribution networks, and additional power generation plants at Canefield, Anna Regina and Bartica.
GPL was ultimately fined five per cent of its shareholders’ dividends a few months ago by the PUC over its poor service.
