HGP Nightly News – Guyana’s long-awaited gas-to-energy project at Wales is moving closer to delivery, with the first of four gas turbines expected to be commissioned before the end of the year.
Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar said on the Starting Point Podcast on Sunday that the first 57-megawatt Siemens gas turbine is expected to become operational in December, under the revised agreement with the contractor.
The remaining three gas turbines are expected to be commissioned about three months later. Together, the four units will provide 228 megawatts of gas-fired power.
Two steam turbines are also expected to come online a few months after that, raising the plant’s total generating capacity to 300 megawatts.
According to Indar, the project is expected to bring major savings by replacing imported heavy fuel oil with natural gas as the main fuel used to generate electricity.
The minister said the government has also invested more than US$722 million in transmission lines, substations, and other grid infrastructure to ensure the power produced at Wales can be moved efficiently across the coast.
That work includes a new 230-kilovolt transmission network, upgraded substations, and a new national control centre, all aimed at strengthening the national grid and improving reliability.
Consumers are also expected to benefit from more stable electricity once the project comes online. Indar said the Siemens turbine technology can recover much faster from system disturbances than the reciprocating engines currently used by the Guyana Power and Light Inc.
The minister acknowledged that some temporary power outages will still occur as GPL upgrades substations and transfers customers to the new infrastructure. However, he said those works are necessary as part of the wider effort to modernise the country’s electricity network.
