Giftland to power lower East Coast through agreement with GPL

In the coming weeks, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc. will begin purchasing power from the Giftland Mall to supply the lower East Coast of Demerara.

The power company is also looking to re-engage Banks DIH to enter into a similar agreement.

This was disclosed by Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson at the sidelines of an event on Monday.

“The contract with Giftland has been signed –the Power Purchase Agreement –the technical modalities have been worked out and the license has been granted, so very shortly…in a matter of weeks…Giftland will be supplying about three to four megawatts into the power grid to augment what GPL has,” Patterson told reporters during an interview.

He explained that the agreement will see the pressure being reduced on GPL’s Kingston and Vreed-en-hoop generation plants.

“Giftland is [beneficial] because obviously it will take off the load [because] we don’t have a power-producing centre on the East Coast…so the idea is that this here would power the lower East Coast,” the Minister added.

The deal has long been in the making but several technical and legal issues had to be settled.

Chairman of Giftland Mall Roy Beepat had publicly stated that he submitted two proposals to supply power to GPL’s grid. While Giftland has 6.7MW of power, only 1.6MW is used during optimal operations.

Presently, GPL’S power generation stands at 142 megawatts while the peak demand measures 124.6 megawatts. This allows for a 17.4-megawatt reserve, which falls below the internationally required standard of 20 per cent of power generation, according to the Department of Public Information.

The Minister said GPL is looking for similar agreements with other companies in strategic locations.

“It is a matter of where you are and the need…let’s say someone is in West Coast Berbice then GPL may be interested so it is less dependency on the Georgetown and Vreed-en-hoop base power systems…so it is a strategic approach so I don’t want persons to find a piece of land in any location and decide they want to build a power plant to sell to us, it has to be discussed and agreed,” he noted.

One of the companies that were previously engaged is Banks DIH, however, Minister Patterson disclosed that that company had a mishap with their plant so the amount available to sell was reduced. He said the company will be re-engaged as it rebuilds its capacity.