Power ship connection set for tomorrow

The 36-megawatt power ship, which will provide extra power to the national grid and “significantly” help to bring relief in face of under generation by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), is set for connection by Wednesday.

“While those don’t solve the problem, they do help to address very significant under generation that we have right now in a very significant way.

“So the arrival and plugging in of this power ship into the grid along with the other investment… I mentioned will help but they will not solve the problem overnight. ” Senior Minister within the office of the President with responsibility for Finance and Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh said.

Dr Singh and Prime Minister Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips visited the area at Everton, Berbice where the power ship is being connected on Sunday.  They were accompanied by GPL Chief Executive Officer, Kesh Nandlall and other technical officials from the company.

The power ship sailed to Everton on Saturday. There, it took up its final position and is expected to be connected to the grid by Wednesday.

“We have just taken a tour of the ship and we are very impressed with the condition of the vessel and we are on track to interconnect the power ship onto the network on May 8.

“We have constructed the transmission line and then we have to do some protection work and then we will test the ship and interconnect,” Nandlall explained.

The power ship is being rented by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) from Karpowership International out of Turkey.

Speaking to reporters during the visit, Prime Minister Phillips assured that once connected, the added power will address the load shedding faced in the country.

This, he reminded is being done with no increase to the cost for electricity.

“What we are dealing now with is satisfying the tremendous growth in demand for electricity right now.

“So we are investing in more power but at the same time we have to maintain the existing generators and this investment here is a big one for us,” Prime Minister Phillips said.

GPL has already paid a mobilisation fee of US$1 million to rent the power ship and it will pay 6.62 cents per kilowatt hour as a monthly charter fee plus 0.98 cents per kilowatt hour on maintenance, based on electricity generated.

The deal to rent the power ship was signed on April 13 with Urbacon Concessions Investments, W.L.L (UCI) to rent the power ship for two years.