Powership Deal: No increase in the cost of electricity – Jagdeo assures

The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) is renting a powership for two years to supply emergency power needed locally but Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo affirmed that there will be no increase in the cost of electricity.

GPL has already paid a mobilisation fee of US$1 million to rent a powership and it will pay 6.62 cents per kilowatt hour as a monthly charter fee plus 0.98 cents per kilowatt hour on maintenance, based on electricity generated.

Jagdeo, at his weekly press conference, emphasised, “There will be no increase in the price of electricity because of this rental.”

He also noted that the government is already subsidising the cost of electricity and even though it will be spending more to produce electricity now, the cost passed onto consumers will not increase.

The deal to rent the powership was signed on April 13 with Urbacon Concessions Investments, W.L.L (UCI) to rent the power ship for two years.

In a press release on Thursday, GPL revealed the ship, with a capacity of 36 Megawatts, will be operated and maintained by UCI, a subsidiary of UCC Holdings based in Qatar, in collaboration with Karpowership International from Turkey.

The ship, previously used in Cuba, will arrive in Guyana around May 1, weather permitting. It will be located at Everton, Berbice, and connected to GPL’s Grid at 69 kV. GPL is preparing the site for the ship’s arrival and expects it to start delivering electricity by May 8.