West Demerara generating own electricity

Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 February 2015, 2:26 by GxMedia

Major blackouts on the West Demerara are expected to be a thing of the past with the switching on of a new power station at Vreed-en-Hoop.

The official commissioning of the US$26 million power plant, regarded as Guyana’s largest, was held on Monday.

Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company,  Bharrat Dindyal said the entire West Demerara is now self-sufficient in electricity with some 26 megawatts.

Construction began with the inking of a turn-key contract in September 2012 and after the initial contractor, Sonwaru’s Investment pulled out, the second highest bidder Correia and Correia Investments took over, bringing the job to completion.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, who is responsible for the energy sector described the commissioning of the Region Three power station as “a great day and a sense of achievement and a good example of Guyanese and others working together and achieving much”.

The state-run Government Information Agency (GINA) reported that the facility uses 8.7 megawatt 20v 32 generators (the largest Wartsila internal combustion engines to be used locally) and also features bulk storage tanks for heavy and light fuel oil, lubricants, fully equipped workshop with spares, a new wharf with refuelling pipe lines, new feeders, multi-layered fire fighting system, flood control systems, a monitoring and control system covering the entire facility, noise mitigation measures, water processing and separation systems, an expanded 69KV Sub-Station and a corrosion protection system.

GPL Board Chairman Winston Brassington, in his short remarks noted that this latest project comes on the heels of the recently completed Infrastructure Development Programme (IDP) which provides for new transmission lines all the way to Berbice, linking the Demerara and Berbice systems, with 10 megawatts of power, and the commissioning of seven new sub-stations.

 He also revealed that the Operating and Maintenance contract with Wartsila is the oldest such arrangement in the world. He too repeated calls for persons to stop stealing electricity from the system.