Gov’t moving ahead with Tumatumari, Moco Moco hydro projects – Patterson
ALTHOUGH the Amaila Falls hydro project is on hold, pending the completion of a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) pertaining to the economic viability of the project, government will be moving ahead with the construction of small hydro systems at Tumatumari and Moco Moco.Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson, during a press conference at his Kingston office yesterday, said further that “if we could have gotten the Amaila Falls project completed in a way (that’s) beneficial to the public, then we would have, and we made this offer to the Opposition, if they are claiming its feasible in its current construct, but it is not.”
The project which has been suspended would have cost almost US$1B, making it easily the most expensive project ever in the country.
Based on figures, it was found that the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) would have been required to make annual payments amounting to US$130M to the operators of the hydro facility, costing the country a total of US$2.6B over the 20-year commitment period of the power purchase agreement.
Unlike the Amaila Falls hydro project which needed a government guarantee, Patterson said the Tumatumari and Moco Moco hydro projects will be working with a power purchase agreement which is more feasible.
The government’s vision, he said, is to have the new townships being powered by alternative energy sources, starting with Bartica.
The Tumatumari Hydropower Station was the first hydropower station to be constructed on the Potaro River, Region 8. The plant was constructed in 1957 by the British Goldfields Limited and operated until 1959 when the mining operations ceased. In 1969, the Government of Guyana re-commissioned the station where the power was transmitted to serve the Guyana National Service Camps at Tumatumari and Konawaruk. The development included an embankment dam, a concrete overflow dam, and a two-unit powerhouse with an installed capacity of 1500 kw, using 2 X 750 kw Francis turbines.
THI and Hydro Quebec International signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of this hydro station and were looking for a developer to complete its final works.
Several MOUs were signed with various companies for the development of the Tumatumari Hydropower Project. However, all have since expired.
Under the previous administration, a small hydropower project was developed with assistance from the Government of China in 1995 at Moco-Moco. This assisted a small network for Lethem which was then still dependent on fuel (and everything else) being flown in from Georgetown, or coming by road from Venezuela and Brazil. On beginning the operation of the Moco-Moco hydro plant in 1999, Lethem Power Co Inc. was born.
However, Moco-Moco was disrupted by a landslide in 2003 which affected the hydro plant.
