Norton vows to maintain cheap electricity rates in Linden despite no plans to hike costs

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Presidential Candidate, Aubrey Norton, promised to keep electricity rates low in the mining town of Linden should the party be elected after the September 1 General and Regional Elections.

APNU, the main political opposition, took its election campaign to Linden on Sunday, hoping to fire up its longtime stronghold.

Norton said Linden has the scope to develop other industries outside of bauxite, but such ventures would be heavily dependent on cheap electricity. As such, he promised that the APNU will work assiduously to ensure that there is always cheap electricity there.

However, he accused the government of planning to hike electricity costs beyond the current subsidised rates. The governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) said this will not be done.

“I heard Mark Phillips came here and saying that they are going to put this on the national grid.

“Understand what they are trying to tell you. It’s a nice way of saying to you that we will remove the subsidy from electricity in Linden, that must not happen,” Norton told Lindeners.

Linden’s current electricity demand stands at about 11 megawatts (MW).

The Linden Electricity Company purchases power produced by the Bosai Mineral Group, which operates in the town, and distributes it to thousands of households across the mining town. However, the power bought and distributed to Lindeners is heavily subsidised by the government.

Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, in May, said Linden will be connected to Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) main grid, known as the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).

Amid this plan, and other electricity ventures in Region 10, the Prime Minister assured Lindeners that they would not pay more for electricity.

“Linden has the cheapest electricity rates in Guyana and perhaps in the whole of the western hemisphere for obvious reasons and historical reasons that I wouldn’t go into. And as a government, we are committed to maintaining those rates, we will not increase it.

“What we will do, is find ways of bringing the cost of delivering electricity to the people of Linden downwards,” said on May 21 when the contract for the 15-megawatt (MW) solar farm in Linden was inked.

The government hopes that the new solar farm in Linden will help wean the town off the subsidised power arrangement with Bosai.

The Prime Minister also noted that connecting Linden to the DBIS means that it will benefit from the extra power that will be supplied soon from the 300 MW Gas-to-Energy project at Wales and later, the 165MW Amaila Falls Hydropower project.

About $5 billion is invested annually to subsidise electricity for residents in Region 10.