PPP/C focused on ‘diversified energy mix’, Amaila will be delivered – Jagdeo

Assuring that the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) will be built, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has revealed that Brazilian investors are among the bidders who have been submitting unsolicited bids for the project.

Speaking at the International Energy Conference, on Tuesday (February 15, 2023), he explained that the project will be retendered. “We’re looking at whether we’ll make a decision to go with one of them or we’ll go out back to public tender. Most likely we’ll go back out to public tender. But the hydro will be built,” Jagdeo said.

In the past, Jagdeo made clear that the PPP/C government has not shifted from its position that the engagement on the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project must follow a BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer) Model, not an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) model.

The Government was in negotiations with China Railway Group Limited for the completion of the Amaila Falls Hydropow - er Plant based on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model. Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to develop the AFHP, either on the basis of a 20-year Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) concession or on a Design-Build-Finance (DBF) basis were invited in 2021. However, the China Railway Group Limited indicated that the BOOT model was not feasible, so negotiations ended, with the company advocating for a different financing model – an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) model.

In May, Jagdeo had said, “The last six months we have been struggling to reach an agreement. We will have to give a deadline and cancel if they can’t proceed with the original model…The tender was about Build, Own, Operate, Transfer, not a EPC Plus finance model…so we may have a setback on that.”

In November 2021, Jagdeo had said, “Amaila still remains the best option for meeting baseload renewable energy for Guyana. That is the only way you can decar- bonise, so the only way to achieve renewable energy is through the construction of the hydropower.”

A total of four companies had submitted proposals.

China Railway Group Limited was identified as the most ‘capable partner’ by the Evaluation Committee after a rigorous evaluation process, following which the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) submitted the relevant recommendation to Cabinet for ‘no-objection.’ Under the BOOT model the company will supply electricity to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc. at a cost averaging US$0.07737 per KWH over the 20 year BOOT period.

Important Project

The revival of the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project was one of the promises made by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in its manifesto. The project was initiated under the previous PPP/C Administration but was scrapped by the coa-

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