GPL receiving 18MW of electricity from power ship; more to be added this week

The power ship, promising to inject up to 36MW of power into the national grid, was successfully connected to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) systems.

Currently, only 18MW of generation from the ship is being injected into the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).

The remaining generation will be added to the grid incrementally during the course of the coming week.

“The Guyana Power and Light Inc. wishes to express our gratitude to the Government of Guyana, NDMA, GAICO, E-Networks and our dedicated Transmission and Distribution and Protection and Instrumentation employees for their invaluable contribution towards realizing this timely initiative,” GPL said in a statement.

On Thursday last, Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo said the government intends to seek out more power.

He noted that the additional power would be sought in a short term arrangement similar to the current powership venture. That is, power will be supplied to the main power grid for two years until the government is able to complete and operationalise the massive 300 MW Gas-to-Energy project at Wales, West Bank Demerara.

The power ship is being rented by GPL from Karpowership International out of Turkey.

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.

At his press conference, Jagdeo said the government hopes the additional 36 MW of power will be able to ease the spate of power outages the consumers have been grappling with.