BOSAI Minerals Group has agreed to install three megawatts (MW) of additional generating capacity in Linden, as residents and businesses continue to report losses from load-shedding and an unstable electricity supply.
Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar yesterday said the first 1.5 MW generating unit is expected to become available tomorrow. BOSAI was still to confirm when a second unit of similar capacity would be installed.
Indar announced the intervention in a Facebook statement while providing an update on measures taken since a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister last Friday.
He said Horace Williams, head of the Hinterland Electrification Company Inc (HECI), met BOSAI’s management yesterday and the company agreed to provide the additional capacity.
At Friday’s press conference, Indar disclosed that BOSAI was supplying approximately 14 MW to the Linden grid while peak demand had reached 15.1 MW, resulting in a shortfall of just over one megawatt.
Yesterday, however, he said approximately three additional megawatts were needed to meet demand and provide some reserve capacity.
Indar said demand falls to around 9 MW during lower-consumption periods but rises to between 14 MW and 14.5 MW when households, businesses and industrial operations are active. He identified the principal peak periods as 1 pm to 3 pm and 7 pm to 9 pm.
The minister attributed the increase to hotter weather, expanding economic activity and the greater use of appliances in homes and businesses.
Other generators
Indar said the government was also arranging to transport three one-megawatt generators from a manganese company in Port Kaituma to Linden.
The units would have to be installed on specially constructed bases to prevent vibration from damaging them, he explained. No date was given for their commissioning.
According to Indar, suppliers in Boa Vista, Brazil, have also offered another three megawatts of generating capacity. Those units require a transformer, which is still being sourced.
He said the government had contacted mining companies and other operators in its effort to find temporary generating capacity.
Vendor reports losses
Meanwhile, 56-year-old market vendor Racquel said the repeated outages and restoration of electricity had damaged her equipment, spoiled produce and increased the cost of operating her business.
“This on and off [is] damaging your equipment. I had to change a thing that burn from my cooler,” she told Kiskadee Watch.
“When the things are not working, things spoil—the produce that you have to sell, like your grapes [and] seasoning, they don’t keep.”
Racquel, a mother of five and grandmother of three, said she had been vending for several years. She reported losing eschallot and other produce during the outages and having to purchase replacement stock.
“When they have the blackout, I lose big time,” she said. “Some eschallot and so on, they damage up. I had to buy back things.”
She said her electricity bill had climbed to approximately $40,000 per month despite the unreliable supply.
“That is hard. The place at a standstill and then they raising the bill,” Racquel said.
She reported that Wismar had been without electricity for most of the day, until around 5 pm, while Mackenzie, where she sells, was expected to receive power later.
“If they get it whole night, then it damaging your things,” she said, referring to the effect of the fluctuating supply when electricity is restored.
Racquel appealed to the authorities to find an urgent solution, noting that consumers were left to bear the cost of damaged appliances and spoiled goods.
Sawmill restrictions
Indar said the government had met sawmill operators following Friday’s press conference and asked them to operate between 10 pm and 11 am, outside the main peak-demand periods.
He said there were records of 35 sawmills operating in Linden. The proposed schedule would give the businesses a 13-hour window within which to operate.
Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed and Region Ten WIN representative Mark Goring yesterday visited several sawmills during a Facebook Live broadcast and disputed suggestions that the operations were principally responsible for the electricity shortfall.
Goring said some sawmillers reported that they had been removed from the grid since the previous Tuesday, although residents continued to experience scheduled outages.
“All the sawmills are off at the moment,” he said. “We don’t want to put the sawmills out of business. The sawmills are very important in terms of our community.”
Goring said workers, small loggers and riverine communities depended on the industry. While some sawmills could temporarily generate their own electricity, he argued that the underlying problem was insufficient capacity.
“To me, this problem is a far bigger issue… The consumption is far more than what is generating, and this is proof of poor planning and foresight from the government,” he said.
Goring noted that consumption had risen from approximately 9 MW in 2020 to 15 MW in 2026.
“It means every year we increase by one megawatt,” he said, arguing that the trend should have informed the government’s planning.
He also questioned the progress of the 15 MW solar farm being developed for Linden, saying only limited work appeared to have been completed at the site despite the contract having been awarded months earlier.
Mohamed said the restrictions had forced at least one sawmiller to purchase a generator for approximately $8.3 million.
“Although the sawmill is not on the grid, the people of Region Ten still got blackouts and load-shedding,” he said.
The sawmiller told Mohamed that several operators had acquired generators or removed themselves from the grid to avoid being blamed for the electricity problem.
Mohamed called on the government to acknowledge that the available capacity was insufficient.
“Tell people the truth. You can’t supply current to the whole of Linden,” he said.
The opposition representatives also raised concerns about the impact of the outages on small businesses, students attending online classes and health facilities.
LECI statement
In a statement on Sunday, the Linden Electricity Company Inc (LECI) said available generation capacity stood at 14.5 MW while peak demand had exceeded 15 MW.
The company attributed the increase to unusually high temperatures, greater use of cooling equipment and continued residential and commercial expansion.
LECI said load-shedding was necessary during peak periods to prevent a collapse of the system. It said the outages were being rotated to avoid prolonged disruption in any single area.
Earlier that day, the company issued a schedule identifying the communities expected to experience outages and the periods during which their supply would be interrupted. It cautioned that the scheduled times could change depending on demand and available generation.
LECI also pointed to the proposed 15 MW solar farm, the first phase of which is expected to be commissioned by the end of the year. It said the increase in demand had occurred before the additional capacity could be brought online.
The company apologised for the disruptions and urged residents and businesses to limit their use of high-consumption appliances during peak periods.
Poor planning
APNU parliamentarian Sharma Solomon has argued that the outages reflect years of inadequate planning and cannot be explained solely by high temperatures or increased use of air-conditioning units.
Solomon said Linden’s electricity demand stood at approximately 6 MW when the power-purchase arrangement was established around 2005. Consumption had since risen to between 14 MW and 14.5 MW without a corresponding expansion in generating capacity, he said.
He also questioned the increasing number of industrial consumers connected to a system originally intended to benefit Linden residents.
“A community benefit cannot become an industrial subsidy,” Solomon said. “If a company expands, its electricity requirements must be reassessed.”
He has called for the immediate deployment of temporary generators, an urgent review of the power-purchase arrangement and the publication of a long-term electricity plan for Linden.
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