Guyana to hire Turkish barge to ease blackouts

Last Updated on Thursday, 11 April 2024, 18:08 by Writer

The Guyana government is finalising a deal with a Turkish company to rent a 36 megawatt barge, in an effort to satisfy peak electricity demand at a time when several generators are giving trouble, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said Thursday.

Peak electricity demand in the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) is just over 170 megawatts but existing generators are pushing just about 160 megawatts.

Mr Jagdeo said the company, Karpowership, would sell the electricity at 4 US cents per megawatt over the next two years until the Wales Gas to Energy natural gas-fired electricity generation power plant is completed in 2025. He said Guyana would supply the fuel to the barge.

He added that the vessel would arrive in another two to three weeks and would be hooked up to the Guyana Power and Light’s grid at Everton, Berbice where the system could take off that magnitude of electricity. He said the system at Kingston, Georgetown would be unable to take off that amount of energy.

According to Mr Jagdeo, who is part of a team of ministers working to address the power woes, efforts were continuing to hook up all of the 17 generators that GPL had acquired from APAN Energy at a cost of US$27.5 million to cater for the Christmas season demand.