The Guyana Power and Light, (GPL) has announced that it will be dolling out a staggering US$1 million as a mobilization fee and will also be paying 6.62 US cents per Kilowatt-hour   as a monthly charter fee for the power ship, as well as a monthly operation and maintenance fee of 0.98 US cents per Kwh, based on electricity generated. 

In a release today, the power company explained that it signed the contract over the weekend with Urbacon Concessions Investments WLL of Qatar to charter a power ship with a total installed capacity of 34 Megawatts (MWs) for a period of two years. 

The contract includes the provision of operation and maintenance services as part of the agreement. 

“The powership is expected to operate at 96 percent availability. GPL has paid a total mobilization fee of One million United States Dollars and is not required under the contract to pay a demobilization fee. Under the contract, GPL is responsible for providing Heavy Fuel oil for the operation of the generators,” GPL said in its statement. 

In giving a background of the contracted company, GPL said UCI is a subsidiary of UCC holdings, a company incorporated in Qatar and has a strategic alliance with Karpowership international, a Turkish Company.

According to GPL, the power ship last operated in Cuba as part of a contingent of similar generation assets. 

The powership which is expected to be located in Everton, Berbice is likely to arrive here on May 1 and will be interconnted with GPL’s grid at 69 kV. 

GPL says it has already begun preparatory work at the site to accommodate the powership and the interconnection to GPL’s grid. 

The Powership is expected to be fully functional by the 8th May, according to GPL.

The intervention of the powership comes as the country is grappling with daily power outages for long hours.

In the last two months citizens have expressed their frustrations over lengthy power outages which have disrupted their lives and livelihood. A number of citizens have also lodged complaints about damage to their appliances by the power fluctuations.

The Government has dismissed concerns about the feasibility of securing the services of the power ship for two years, as against investing more in GPL and its power generation capacity.

Since the signing of the agreement, GPL has started to put systems in place to accommodate the power ship and transfer power to the national grid.

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