The government is building redundancy into Guyana’s electricity network as part of a major infrastructure programme to improve reliability and reduce disruptions to consumers.
Kesh Nandlall, Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) Team Leader of the Executive Management Committee, spoke during a tour of the Goedverwagting substation on Friday. Nandlall said new infrastructure is being designed so electricity can continue flowing even when a transmission line or transformer is taken out of service. Nandlall said redundancy will be a key feature of GPL’s future infrastructure projects. "What we are building out, and in all our future infrastructural projects, we are building redundancy," he said.
He said that if they take down one transformer they will have another one there so they will not have any outage. He said that under the existing system, maintenance at some substations can result in customers losing electricity. The new infrastructure is intended to provide alternative pathways for power. Nandlall said if one line or one transformer trips, the power goes to the other one and the interruption of customers is not there.
The works form part of a US$422.2 million programme to strengthen Guyana’s electricity transmission and distribution network. The programme is intended to prepare the network to receive power from the 300-megawatt Gas-to-Energy project at Wales. The Goedverwagting substation will play a central role in the upgraded network, receiving electricity generated at Wales and transmitting it across the interconnected system. Power from the Gas-to-Energy plant will be transmitted to Goedverwagting at 230 kilovolts (kV).
Power will be reduced to lower voltage levels for distribution across the network. The substation will interconnect with GPL’s existing Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) and the Sophia substation. The new facility has been designed with additional capacity to cater for 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 that transmission network have already been constructed.
A 230kV transmission network will extend east to Williamsburg. At Williamsburg another substation will reduce the voltage to 69kV. That network will interconnect with the Onverwagt and Number 53 substations. GPL said power can also be transmitted farther east to the Skeldon substation. Communities along the corridor, extending towards Moleson Creek, will eventually be connected to the expanded power network.
