President Dr Irfaan Ali engaging reporters on Monday.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana--President Dr. Irfaan Ali on Monday detailed the wide range of problems plaguing Guyana’s electricity sector, emphasising that major investments are needed to deliver reliable power to Guyanese.
At a press conference held at his office on Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown, the President also described the recent spate of blackouts as both “unpleasant” and “unreliable.”
Over the last few years, the power demand has grown substantially. President Ali attributed this to the development of new housing schemes and the rise of business and industrial activities. Dr. Ali also shared that a report compiled by the InterEnergy consultancy shows this demand skyrocketing over the next few years.
As such, he said major investments are needed. InterEnergy has recommended the establishment of an independent grid reliability taskforce, smart metering and digitising, additional generating capacity and investments in the transmission and distribution network. President Ali said some of these investments are already taking shape, but more work is needed.
“It is not a short-term fix, and we have to hold people accountable in this process,” the President told reporters.
“It’s a real challenge, but the real solutions lie in major investments that must be made in a comprehensive way.”
Last week, as concerns mounted over recent blackouts, Guyana Power and Light (GPL) officials said the company has enough generating capacity to meet local power demand but highlighted that its transmission network is now under great strain.
“The reality is that the distribution system is now facing challenges. That is, feeders are now being overloaded, transformers are being taxed and overloaded (and) some people get voltage fluctuations,” Head of the Executive Management Committee Kesh Nandlall told reporters.
Nandlall said there are ongoing investments in upgrading the grid but highlighted too that the demand for power continues to climb — outpacing the development of the upgrades and the introduction of the Wales Gas-to-Energy project.
GPL recorded a peak demand of 257 megawatts (MW) at the beginning of this month; it currently has 265.6MW of installed capacity. The increased demand has been attributed to the increased use of power for cooling purposes (for example, to power air conditioning units) and the general increase in customers because of the creation of new housing schemes and businesses. ~News Room~
