Prime Minister, Brigadier (retired) Mark Phillips has instructed the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) to immediately issue an Expression of Interest (EOI) for anyone willing to provide additional power to GPL’s grid. The aim is to add to the current capacity or current output of GPL.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Phillips, along with Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, met with senior management of the utility company at its Kingston Secretariat.
“All steps must be taken to ensure that we have reliable electricity in Guyana and zero power outages,” the Prime Minister told the media.
He also explained that the power company has been the victim of poor planning.
“Many of the projects that GPL is running with right now should have begun three or four years before; however, we are prepared to face the problems and to direct our energies towards fixing these problems in the interest of the people of Guyana.”
Regarding what is specifically needed, Minister Indar said more power is required to boost GPL’s current capacity or output which is about 120 MW.
“If any generator within that entire substation set on the DDIL system goes out and that falls below 120, you will have a blackout. The demand and output are relatively the same, anything that happened down there in terms of mechanical failures, for example, a generator tripping, you will have a blackout,” Minister Indar explained.
He said because there is no backup capacity, more power must be added to the grid.
“So, GPL has been instructed to put out an Expression of Interest quickly to see what is out there in the private sector to add to the grid.”
Additionally, the management of GPL has been tasked with upgrading any generators that were not operational to add further backup power to the system. (Extracted and modified from the Department of Public Information)
