Solar power may be a better option
Kaieteur News – Guyana has no debt crisis. The PPP / C has done a great job managing the country’s debt, taking into account what it inherited from the PNC in 1992.
However, Guyanese people must be wary of using public debt to finance private earnings. This is one of the real possibilities if the controversial gas-to-shore project goes ahead.
The danger of that project is the financial model. If public money is going to be injected into this project to enrich a few friends and government cronies, it should be insignificant.
The government is unlikely to enter into a public private partnership (PPP) model for this project. This model has proven dubious in the past because it has allowed friends and cronies of the PPP / C and favored investors the benefit of trying to attract public support with a promising 50 percent reduction in electricity tariffs.
The PPP greed machine must not be allowed to get its hands on this project. The dubious model used for the Marriott Hotel and the Berbice River Bridge must not be transplanted into this project if it proves to be viable.
And that viability should not be based on a 50 percent reduction in electricity tariffs. No less than electricity and free cooking gas per household must come from this project.
Trinidad and Tobago are the most industrialized economy in the English-speaking Caribbean. Only eight percent of the natural gas it produces provides the twins’ electricity needs.
Guyana’s natural gas production is far greater than that of Trinidad and Tobago. And so, no Guyanese ever have to pay again for cooking gas (propane) or electricity. So, don’t have this impression of 50 percent in the cost of electricity. It is a rogue carrot, which is hung to woo support for the proposed gas-to-shore project.
Guyanese must be ready to take to the streets to demand free electricity and cooking gas for households by 2025. They must also be ready to protest to ensure that the onshore gas project does not become a cash cow to the usual suspects and their friends and cronies. This is why this project must be funded not by friends, cronies, syndicate investors or PPP / C venture capitalists. The money for this project should come from the average citizen based on rate of return guaranteed. Given the liquidity in the local banking sector, the money can be raised this way, if the project is feasible.
It may not be. This is because the cost of alternative energy sources is falling. The Head of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) recently reported that the country has saved about $ 488M in electricity tariffs because of the investments [made by the APNU+AFC] in solar power. It was unclear how this amount was calculated – whether it was just a crude measure of electricity units generated by solar power, multiplied by the cost of electricity generated by the national grid, or whether it was is considered in the amortized cost of the capital. costs of solar panels and batteries.
However, most revealing was the huge fall, which the GEA highlighted in the cost of solar power generation. The head of GEA noted that the cost of solar power generation has decreased over the past decade. It currently stands at US $ 1 per kilowatt today. This significant reduction makes it even more important to have a feasibility study for the onshore gas (GTS) project. If the GTS project benefits consumers only by a 50 per cent reduction in electricity costs, it may be more practical to move towards small-scale solar grid systems that would reduce energy costs by much more than 50 per cent, given the numbers quoted by the head of the Guyana Energy Agency.
India offers a line of credit to fund solar energy expansion. And this may be a better option than simply allowing the PPP / C to manually select investors under a PPP (public private partnership) model for its onshore gas project.
So Guyanese have to keep a close eye on the onshore gas project. The PPP / C must not be allowed to create a model for funding this project, which benefits a few of its friends and family while saddling the country with public debt that is used to help subsidize the costs of the project project.
The PPP / C must not be allowed to impose the financial model of Marriott or other Berbice Bridge on the nation. Guyanese people should not be fooled by the assertion of a 50 percent reduction in the cost of electricity. That is brainless.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)