Gov’t buys US$2.5M generators to ensure power for Christmas

Additional generator sets are expected to be installed at the end of the month to increase the capacity of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company to provide power for the holiday season.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, at a press conference on Friday, said the Government has purchased additional generator sets through MaCorp Ltd. at a cost of US$2.5M.

“Those will be units that will be used…once the baseload comes in can be deployed across the country. That is for about US$2.5M; so that is all to ensure we have emergency power as we approach Christmas and into the New Year pending the establishment of the major baseload capacity,” he noted.

Speaking about power generation at a time when there have been constant power outages, the Vice President said the former administration paid for a Wartsila generator to produce 46 megawatts of power but no preparation was made to install the generator on arrival.

As such, Jagdeo said “right now, the engine is here in the country but it will have to sit and wait for as much as five months while the civil works are being done to accommodate it.”

The Vice President said there are several sources of energy being looked at to reduce the overall cost of electricity and provide more reliable power. These include hydro and solar energy.