West Demerara to have better power supply – GPL’s submarine cable soon to be laid
Georgetown, GINA, March 13, 2012
The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Incorporated will soon begin laying the submarine cable for the improvement of power supply to West Demerara, part of a massive US $42 M infrastructural development programme for power company.
Chief Executive Officer of the company, Bharrat Dindyal told the media today at the company’s new Kingston Power Plant that the cable will be laid from the West Demerara section of the river to aback of the power plant at Kingston.
“The people of West Demerara, they are going to see a dramatic improvement in the quality and the reliability of their supply because we are going to have the ability now using this brand new 36 megawatt plant that we have here and other capacity in Demerara to deliver power to West Demerara to the full requirement,” Dindyal said.
The cable aspect is part of an overall GPL project financed under a Chinese loan that caters for the construction of seven sub-stations and the upgrading of transmission lines towards effecting more efficient and reliable delivery of power to the citizens.
Guyana Power and Light Company's submarine cables at the Kingston power station
The cable which has the capacity to deliver over 150 megawatts of power to West Demerara will be laid at least 3.5 meters below the Demerara River bed for protection. Dindiyal said that the power company is being cautious as it has recognised that activities in the river would pose the most challenges to the installation and maintenance of the cable.
He said that some years ago, the Power Company, then Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC) had an 11 kilobyte - cable running from the said location that was damaged by a ship’s anchor.
To lay the cable, the company will work around the activities on the river; the CEO said, and it is currently collaborating with the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) in this regard. Dindiyal said that the department has since sent out advisories informing the relevant entities of the upcoming GPL operations on the river.
The CEO called for those operating and traversing the river to be understanding of the power company’s operations.
The cable, apart from having power conductors is also embedded with a fiber optic cable that will facilitate communication particularly for the company’s scanning operation.
The excavation operation for the submarine cable, crossing from West Demerara to Kingston also presents an opening for the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) company as it will be using the opportunity provided by the crossing to lay their own fiber optic cable at a minimum cost.
The sub-station at Kingston will be expanded to provide the connection to West Demerara. A new 35 megavolts amperes (MVA) transformer will be purchased by the company to power the expanded sub-station.
The substation when expanded will have a total of 70MVA transformer capacity that will see the company itself having a total of 250 MVA substation capacity. The infrastructure development project will see the addition of another 117 MVA in six of the seven sub-stations that will be constructed under the Chinese funded infrastructure development project.
The seventh sub-station at Sophia will bear only transmission facilities.
The submarine cable will be laid by experts and technical personnel brought in by the Chinese.