Hydropower plant will be aggressively pursued - Jagdeo
By Gary Eleazar
Guyana simply does not have favourable wind flow to justify the setting up
of the intended wind farm at Hope Beach, East Coast Demerara.
This is according to Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo during an interactive
session with media operatives, yesterday.
He emphasized that Guyana would have had to install 11 megawatts of power
which when transferred to the national grid would have been reduced to three
megawatts. This was a costly exercise given that with renewable energy the
initial cost is high.
“We don’t have the wind flows that will do wind power justice like some
other countries have.”
The president said that is why the country opted for a fossil fuel option,
which it subsidises. He added that an expected 21 megawatts that is expected
to come on stream in September at the Kingston Power Plant
According to the Guyana Energy Agency’s website, “The Government of Guyana
and DELTA Caribbean N.V, signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) in March
2007 for the construction of a 13.5 MW Wind Farm at Hope Beach, ECD.”
The project was supposed to supply power to the grid and was expected to be
commissioned in 2010.
The executing company on its website had listed the activity to cost some
US$26M.
As it relates to the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric
Project, the Head of State
reminded that the country went out to tender, the bids came in but at the time
the investors cited the financial crisis.
Jagdeo was adamant however that “by September we have to get definitive word
from the investor…they are doing some additional studies.”
He noted that if at that time the investors cannot move forward with the
project, “then the State, because it has spent a bit of money, will inherit
all of the documents, the drawings, the designs, the environmental permit and
everything else which has taken years to put together.”
He said that should that time come “we will have to see some other source of
building, this including using some of the funds that we can get from the Low
Carbon Development Strategy…Renewable energy is very important in the long
run.”
“We have to build that hydro one way or another; we have to do it.”
The project is based on an initial study that was carried out between the
years 1974 and 1976 to explore the hydroelectric potential under a grant from
the United Nations.
That study was done by Montreal Engineering over the two-year period.
A number of sites were identified, but through a shortlist process, these were
eventually trimmed to three “most promising” sites.
Further studies by the developer between 1997 and 2001 related to the demand
for power, the economics, environmental, ecological and political impacts of
developing each of these sites led to Amaila as the location of choice.
In 1998, Synergy Holdings
Inc. joined with Harza Engineering Company (now
called MW Harza Global) to fund and perform a detailed feasibility study and
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the first Phase of the project.
Between 1999 and 2001, a full feasibility study and EIA was carried out on
site including surveying, drilling in excess of 400 meters, and several site
visits by Harza engineers to evaluate the drill cores and the physical
characteristics of the site and to install river gauging equipment downstream
of the falls.
A man-camp on site and an access road crew in excess of 50 personnel worked on
this project for several months. Drilling equipment was flown in by helicopter
- supplies came in by river and the ATV access road.
Following the on-site investigations and mapping, several alternate designs
were looked at and the developers chose a final design that offered the lowest
construction cost while maintaining the expandability of the project.
The Amaila site is located on the Kuribrong River; a tributary of the Potaro,
and the nearest point of access is the airstrip at Kaieteur Falls on the
Potaro River, approximately 15 miles to the south.
An overland trail exists from Kaieteur to Amaila while access is also provided
over land by an all-weather road through Tumatumari on the Potaro River and on
to Mahdia and Kangaruma
River access along the Potaro-Kuribrong Rivers to the foot of Amaila Falls
involves several portages around rapids and waterfalls.
The road from Tumatumari was recently extended to Mahdia/Kangaruma that brings
you closer to the site but approximately 30 miles of additional roads will
need to be built to the top of Amaila Falls.
In mid-2005, serious talks were restarted between Synergy, the Guyana Power
and Light Inc. and the government in an attempt to finally put the project on
a fast track development schedule.
Following a series of meetings with Government, an MOU was signed between the
developers and Government on May 23, 2006, outlining their agreement to
proceed with the development of the Hydropower plant.
The construction process should have commenced in September last when the
tender process should have closed but was subsequently extended by President
Bharrat Jagdeo, who has publicly committed to building the hydropower station
– estimated to cost approximately US$450M - before he demits office.
The fate of the project, at least in the near future, now depends on the
extended tender process or should that fail because foreign investment is
dwindling, the government commits to building it with taxpayers’ dollars.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
