Extra US$8M spent GPL V/Hoop plant

…CEO says dumped sand disappeared overnight in swamp, and this continued for months

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and top brass of the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) yesterday toured the construction site of the company’s latest generation plant at Vreed-en-Hoop, along with members of the media, and it was disclosed that the project is just about 20 per cent complete and will see cost overruns in the vicinity of US$8M.

GPL CEO Bharrat Dindyal explains the operations of the plant during the tour.

GPL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bharrat Dindyal, in providing an update, said that the increase in the cost is related to the civil works and not the Warstila Contract which remains at US$26M.
Dindyal said given the nature of the soil there had to be a significant amount of work to be done, more than had been envisaged. He reiterated that when GPL first took possession of the site, it was a swamp.
In explaining the soil conditions and what they had to deal with, Dindyal said that when the contractors for the foundation first arrived on the site, their equipment immediately began sinking.
Dindyal said that they decided to dump sand, but this would disappear overnight into the swamp and this went on for months.
According to the CEO, a decision was then taken to bring in geo-textile material and lay it down to allow some consolidation to get the heavy equipment around the site.
Dindyal said that “typically the foundation would have been done in a matter of four to five months, we are a year here now and still not complete.”

Workers assembling the plant at Vreed-en-Hoop yesterday.

He did point out that the Warstsila workers will continue uninhibited in the assembly of the plant, while the civil works on the foundation will continue.
Another significant challenge, according to Dindyal, was the acquisition of poles for the foundation. He said that GPL will be accommodating the largest engines in its fleet at the Vreed-en-Hoop location and some 900 piles had to be sunk below the foundation.
The CEO said that at the site GPL is using the longest piles they have ever used and “we had tremendous difficulty getting those piles.”
In fact for the first eight weeks of the project, the company was managing to only acquire two piles a week.
“Currently we are finished the pile driving, getting the piles was a challenge in itself…Many of the piles in the early days were either short or did not meet the dimensions specified by the designers.”
According to Dindyal, “We are thinking that the civil works and the wharf and everything else will add another US$6M to $8M to the overall price so we are looking at US$32 to
US$34M”
He said that the project is just about 20 per cent complete and they are looking at a July deadline.
Dindyal noted that there is still quite a bit to be done and pointed out that the contractors are still working on foundation for two bulk storage tanks. Each of the tanks will be 2000 cubic metres with a total of about 12,500 barrels of fuel storage which could run the plant for 30 days.
He said that the company will be refueling every ten days.

A tank being lowered into place at the site.

According to the CEO, about 98 per cent of the equipment to be used is already on site and given the lack of storage space, there are about 30 containers more of equipment still at the John Fernandes Container yard on Mandela Avenue.
Workers were yesterday observed assembling the insulated walls of the plant while others could be seen laying some storage tanks and other periphery works.
Prime Minister Hinds, who also addressed the media briefly, said it was good to see the project progressing stage by stage.
The new power plant had initially been set for commissioning late last year, but has now been pushed back to July of this year.
The Wartsila-made engines arrived from Finland in September last, but could not be transported across the Demerara Harbour Bridge because of its weight. It had to be taken from the Georgetown port to Parika via a barge that was contracted out of Trinidad and Tobago, from where special trucks that were brought in transported them along the roadway to the Vreed-en-Hoop site.
The three 8.6 megawatt engines will be the largest of the lot currently being operated by GPL countrywide.