The Guyana government says it hopes to ease the situation regarding a constant supply of electricity to consumers.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has acknowledged that the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company is grappling with a range of issues, including aged infrastructure which has greatly contributed to the generation shortfalls.
“Hopefully by Saturday they should be able to get some of the equipment up and running to allow us to have the capacity. I am going based on what GPL is saying…I don’t want to disappoint people, but this is what we were told. And they are working at this in earnest,” Jagdeo told his weekly news conference on Thursday.
He said simultaneously, a group of ministers, including the Attorney General, the Minister of Finance and others, are working on a proposal regarding the supply of emergency power. “Hopefully, by the end of the week, we can conclude this contract and have this vessel arrive in the country, maybe two to three weeks later, and that will see a significant injection of power to the grid, in addition to what we have. We expect to have this contract for two years until the gas-to-energy project is completed,” Jagdeo told reporters.
He said that in addition to bringing the current power supply situation back to some normalcy in a matter of weeks, the contract for power supply will allow for there to be additional capacity to respond to any unforeseen occurrences.
Last week, Jagdeo acknowledged the disruptive impact of the recurrent power outages and assured the population that the Irfaan Ali government is determined to address the country’s electricity problems.
“The situation is bad. There is no sugarcoating this. We have a situation at GPL that we have explained 100 times before. But often, explanations don’t soothe people when the light goes off, because it disrupts their lifestyle, their normal activities…I understand the feeling there,” he said.
He said the government has a clear plan to address the situation in both the long and short term.
Jagdeo added that since assuming office, the government has purchased approximately 40 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
“Right now, we are looking to buy maybe another 40 to 80 megawatts of power. We are already in the process of doing this. We will have it for two years until the gas to energy project comes.”
Jagdeo pointed to the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project, which is expected to deliver an estimated 165 megawatts of power.
Meanwhile, Jagdeo said that the final deadline for the gas-to-energy project, regarded as the country’s single largest investment, has not shifted.
The government said the project will result in a supply of 300 megawatts of power being provided at 50 per cent less than the current price.
Jagdeo dismissed an international media news report that the project is “running six months behind schedule”, saying that the delay that occurred was a mere three months as a result of a late handover by Exxon’s contractors that were responsible for the pipeline laying aspect.
But he insisted that this late handing over will not affect the completion of the entire project by the end of 2025.
“So, we had a three months’ delay by (Exxon’s contractors) to hand over the site to the (government’s contractor for the power plant) …but the total project timeline has not shifted, that is to bring the 300 megawatts fully on board,” Jagdeo told reporters.
He also dismissed suggestions that four weeks of production will be lost as a result of the connection of the pipeline to ExxonMobil’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.
Jagdeo said that aspect of the project is expected to only take two weeks and has already been taken into consideration by the project managers.
“Our estimate with Exxon given to us is two weeks. So, each of these FPSOs would have to be shut down for two weeks to connect the pipeline…this was taken into account in our forecast for the revenue for this year…this was considered right from the beginning.”
He said ExxonMobil is looking to readjust its maintenance schedule to run concurrent with this timeline.
“They are hoping to bring forward maintenance for that period on the FPSOs for the period when they have to shut them down to make the connection,” Jagdeo added.
