The Government of Guyana (GoG) through the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MOPI), is moving to amend a section of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL)’s licence to allow the company to purchase power from external sources.
Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson, in a notice published in the local print media on Sunday, stated that Section 15 of GPL’s licence, restricts the company from purchasing power from any person other than an Independent Power Producer (IPP), which produces power from renewable energy sources.
IPP, as defined under the Electricity Sector Reform Act 1999, does not include businesses which main business is not the generation of power and which supplies no more than 10 megawatts (MW).
This plan to make changes to the licence, comes at a time when the company is suffering a shortfall of generated power. Several businesses and individuals have offered to provide their excess power to the grid.
With this consideration, the minister has proposed the amendment of Section 15 of GPL’s licence in keeping with Section 13 of the Electricity Sector Reform Act, 1999.
This amendment should allow the company to purchase the excess generation capacity of its consumers, self-generators and other businesses where feasible and consistent with the company’s generation requirements for connection to its grid.
The general public has been given no later than October 6, 2019, to make representations or objections to the Minister of Public Infrastructure at his Kingston, Georgetown office.
Due to a defective transformer at the Onverwagt, Berbice Substation, GPL is unable to export 6.9 Megawatts (MW) of power to the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).
Guyana Standard understands also, that the 5.5MW generator at the Canefield Power Plant is scheduled for maintenance, while a 4MW generator at the Garden-of-Eden Power Station is unavailable as GPL is currently awaiting replacement parts.
