New substations are being constructed at Chateau Margot and Enmore and the Columbia Substation is being expanded. The construction and expansion works are 60 per cent complete. The government is advancing major upgrades to its electricity network.
Works are currently focused on foundations, with some foundations already completed and others progressing. Equipment and towers for the Chateau Margot Substation are being mobilised. Kesh Nandlall, the Chief Executive Officer of Guyana Power and Light (GPL), said: "You will soon see the towers coming in and towers going out." Bharat Harjohn is GPL Deputy CEO for Strategic Operations.
The facilities will form part of an expanded transmission system designed to accommodate additional generation, increase capacity and provide greater reliability for consumers. The transmission network will continue towards Columbia. The arrangement will create alternative routes for moving electricity across the network and provide greater redundancy if sections are affected by faults or taken offline for maintenance.
The new infrastructure will strengthen electricity supply along the East Coast Demerara, where continued development is increasing demand. Nandlall said the project will bring resilience to this part of the East Coast, including industrial sites that are going to commence. He said the substation will provide electricity to new customers and to existing customers where feeders are taxed.
Electricity entering the substation at 69 kilovolts will be reduced to 13.8 kV for distribution. Substations are critical to safely moving electricity from generating facilities to consumers. Electricity generated by turbines at the 300-megawatt Gas-to-Energy plant at Wales will be produced at 13.8 kV and, for long-distance transmission, the voltage will be increased to 230 kV to minimise losses. The Gas-to-Energy plant at Wales has a capacity of 300 megawatts.
