GPL’s generator goes up in flames, Essequibo affected

The Guyana Power and Light Inc. initiated a load shedding schedule in Essequibo earlier today after one of its main generator sets became engulfed into flames, affecting the power supply to the several parts of the country on Wednesday.

Reports coming out of Region 2 suggests that it was one of five mobile Caterpillar Units that went up in flames

We were informed that the fire started sometime around noon in the old GPL compound.

The Guyana Fire Service responded and subsequently extinguished the fire, saving the other four generator sets in the process.

An advisory from the Guyana Power and Light Inc. stated that as a precautionary measure, the remaining units at the plant were taken offline. The advisory further stated that engineers have restarted the engines as they seek to restore power to incrementally to customers on the Coast.

Suddie and Charity were among some of the most affected communities which had bouts of power outages for most of Wednesday.

In 2019, the Granger administration commissioned the Anna Regina Power Station, which is being powered by three ‘MAN’ diesel and turbo engines.

The engines were supplied and installed by Turkish company iLTEKNO and when combined, carries a total generating capacity of 5.4 megawatts.

The peak demand for electricity on the Essequibo Coast, is said to be just over 5.6 5.8 megawatts.

Since the three Turkish engines were unable to produce the region’s peak demand, the caterpillar sets were brought online to produce the added generated power.

Reports are that one of the three Turkish engines is down due to mechanical problems.

Stable electricity supply to the region is expected to be affected with the region now having one less generator to fulfill its demand.

GPL indicated that a probe has been launched to determine the cause of today’s fire, but there are no indications as to whether a replacement generator set will be brought into the region.