Kingston power station generator burnt but no need to worry about blackouts -Indar

Last Updated on Thursday, 5 December 2024, 23:44 by Writer

A burnt section of electrical components at PPDI’s generation plant in Kingston, Georgetown.

Fire severely damaged a 5.5 megawatt (MW) generator and destroyed related electrical wiring at the Kingston, Georgetown-based Power Producers and Distributors Inc (PPDI), but Public Works Minister Deodat Indar said on Thursday that consumers should not worry as sufficient electricity is being generated to satisfy peak demand.

He confirmed that the blaze occurred at 1 o’clock Sunday morning due to a fuel leak, causing external damage to the Number 1 generator. “One of the engines got peripheral damage, nothing internally based on the initial assessment,” he told Demerara Waves Online News. He said PPDI staff extinguished the fire before fire fighters arrived on the scene.

He said mostly electrical wiring and aluminium casings were burnt, prompting engineers from the company and the Guyana Power and Light to ascertain the availability of spares to repair the engine.

Don’t worry about blackouts

Public Works Minister Deodat Indar and representatives of GPL and KPL inspect the construction of an access road to run a transmission cable from the power ship to the new Georgetown sub-station.

The Public Works Minister stressed that electricity consumers in the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) should not be worried about blackouts as a result of Sunday morning’s fire. “No, no, no. Right now, we don’t have a shortage,” he said.

He said current peak demand in the DBIS is 187 MW while the operating capacity is 194 MW. “We have a window and then we have two engines that are going to come on during the month that are going to take us up over 200 MW,” he said. Mr Indar said a 7.5 MW would resume operations 0n December 10 and a 5.5 MW generator would be back in operation on December 21.

Mr Indar said the Number 3 generator that resumed operation on Wednesday was supplying 5.5 MW.

He said the Number 2 generator is projected to resume operations later this month after a 60,000-hour overhaul and a crankshaft for a 30-year-old generator would also be back online later this month.

Meanwhile, he said works were continuing apace with the installation of a 3.9 kilometre cable to accept the 60-MW electricity from the second power ship that is due to arrive in Guyana on December 8, 2024. The electricity would be fed to the new Georgetown sub-station.