The Government of Guyana (GoG) will be working to secure some US$180-US$250 million in funding to upgrade the Guyana Power & Light (GPL) distribution and transmission system. This disclosure was made on Thursday by Vice President (VP), Bharrat Jagdeo, during his press conference.
He explained that as part of the Wales Gas-to-Energy project which entails several components such as: the pipeline to bring gas onshore, and the Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) Plant and the power plant – GPL would need upgrades to its distribution system.
“So we made it clear, we will fund these activities,” Jagdeo said.
Jagdeo noted that a contract has already been awarded to transmit electricity from the power plant in Wales to a control centre being built at Eccles, East Bank Demerara. He continued, “And also to take some of the power to Vreed-en-Hoop. So there are several substations and the transmission main as part of that component and the contract has been awarded to an Indian company, Kalpataru.”
Jagdeo said that aspect of the project as well as the gas pipeline, are expected to be completed by year end.
Besides those aspects, Jagdeo underscored that there are other crucial components, like building a transmission main to take power to Linden and have a substation to allow for the distribution of electricity to communities on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. To this end, the Vice President said, “So that component, we’re already drafted the request for proposal and it’s out.”
The other component Jagdeo spoke about are the funds that will be needed for the critical upgrades to GPL’s distribution and the transmission system.
The Vice President said the upgrades will ensure that, with the increased power, there are no disruptions in the distribution of electricity.
Without the upgrades, Jagdeo noted, that blackouts will persist. “So then we will have power, more power, but still have blackouts because of the weak transmission system. So that is also a component that they are working on and we will fund that, we will have to fund it,” he continued.
Expressing the urgency for the upgrades, Jagdeo said, “That has to start almost immediately. Immediately. So they (GPL) have presented this proposal to us and…we’ve indicated we will have the funding ready…”
Moreover, he explained that the government is considering a supplementary budget or a loan to finance the upgrades by the end of June.
