-as El Niño drives up demand
-by Nakasia Logan
Grappling with unusually high temperature from the El Nino period and high power demand on its grid, the Government of Guyana have devised several plans that will a load of the power generation system.
This from Minster of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar during a press conference held at the Office of the Prime Minster.
Outlining a number of measures Minister of Utilies and Aviation Deodat Indar said to aid in conservation they will request that large consumers to operate during the off peak period to help stabalise the grid while all government agencies and recreational facilities will have to reduce electricity use shutting off power after working hours and when not in use.
“A circular will be issued to every permanent secretary to ensure their ministries comply, from time to time to time people leave on the ACs the lights. We are working with the Ministry of Youth Sport and Culture to take those off because there’s no event on the ground and the lights are just on and they are taking up the energy on the grid,” he said.
So while the government moves to conserve during this period, Indar says they are ensuring that stable electricity is provided by continuously increasing megawatts.
On the demand side intervention by the Government includes another engine at Garden of Eden that will bring some 9.3 Megawatts onto the grid while another 5.5 megawatts will be added in another month in addition another 5 megawatts from the power ship. Currently there is not a generation problem with a reliable generation of 256 megawatts, the challenge is voltage fluctuation at various points in the grid given the large companies that utilising large amount of power to run operations.
“We have 256 now the peak is 242.6 by the end of this month we will have about 280, we see it to go up gradually to the peak of 266 in this hot period in this three month so its not a generation problem,” he explained. “By the end of August we have three more intervention that can bring the 4.5 Hynudai back in place in three weeks’ time the part will be here. We will have another 5.5 megawatts in another 4 weeks its in engine under major overhaul and then the powership also have another 5 megawatts of power that will be coming online before the end of August so by the end of August we will have 280.3 megawatts of power.”
Apart from government’s intervention, the public is being advised to look at ways in which they could conserve the uses of energy also resulting in the reduction on the Grid.
Earlier this month the Hydrometerogical Service reported that Guyana is going to be experiencing strengthening El Nino period.
Since government took office in 2020 they have added an additional 196 Megawatts on power on the grid.