Guyana Building Backup Capacity to Keep Electricity Flowing During Disruptions
GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana is building backup capacity into its electricity network to reduce disruptions when equipment fails or is taken offline for maintenance.
Team Leader of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) Executive Management Committee, Kesh Nandlall, said the approach will be incorporated into future infrastructure projects to allow power to continue flowing through another line or transformer when one is unavailable.
“What we are building out, and in all our future infrastructural projects, we are building redundancy,” he said during a tour of the Goedverwagting substation on Friday.
“So that if we are ready to take down one of these transformers, we have another one there and we won’t have any outage.”
Nandlall explained that under the existing system, taking some transformers out of service for maintenance can result in customers losing electricity.
The upgraded network is being designed with alternative pathways so that power can continue flowing when equipment is taken out of service.
“If one-line trips or if one transformer trips, it goes to the other one and the interruption of the customers is not there,” he said.
The works form part of a US$422.2 million programme to strengthen Guyana’s electricity transmission and distribution network and prepare it to receive power from the 300-megawatt Gas-to-Energy project at Wales.
The Goedverwagting substation will be a key part of the upgraded system, receiving electricity generated at Wales and transmitting it across the interconnected network.
Power from the Gas-to-Energy plant will be transmitted to Goedverwagting at 230 kilovolts (kV) before being reduced to lower voltage levels for distribution.
The substation will also connect with GPL’s existing Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS), including the Sophia substation.
The new facility has been designed with additional capacity to accommodate future electricity demand.
A new 69kV transmission line will connect Goedverwagting to the Columbia substation, replacing existing infrastructure along the railway embankment. Monopoles for sections of the transmission network have already been constructed.
A 230kV transmission network will also extend east to Williamsburg, where another substation will reduce the voltage to 69kV.
That network will connect with the Onverwagt and Number 53 substations, while electricity can also be transmitted farther east to the Skeldon substation.
The expanded network will eventually connect communities along the corridor towards Moleson Creek.
Nandlall said the investment is necessary to ensure electricity generated under the Gas-to-Energy project can be efficiently transmitted to homes and businesses.
Meanwhile, commissioning is nearing for the 300-megawatt Goedverwagting substation and the US$20 million National Control Centre.
The control centre will allow GPL to monitor and manage electricity flows across the national grid in real time, improving its ability to respond to faults and manage demand.
New substations at Chateau Margot and Enmore, along with the expansion of the Columbia substation, are approximately 60 per cent complete.
The programme includes multiple transmission routes and backup infrastructure intended to limit disruptions when equipment fails or requires maintenance.
