Delay in permission…Berbice hotel threatens to dismantle wind turbine, ship it back to India

Mar 14, 2018 News

Owners of a Corentyne, Berbice hotel are upset over the delays by authorities in giving permission for the operations of a wind turbine.
The $1B five-star Classic International Hotel was opened last year April, with plans announced at the glitzy commissioning to install a wind turbine to reduce energy costs.

A white elephant? – The wind turbine at Skeldon.

However, almost a year later, permission has not been granted.
The runaround would fly in the face of the Coalition Government’s statement intentions of greening the economy, Classic International Hotel said yesterday in a statement.
Insisting that it is supportive of the Coalition Government’s thrust to create a “Green State” in Guyana, the hotel said it backs the strategy in principle.
“Also commendable is the national objective of creating and utilising alternative sources of energy. As such, we are very perturbed and dismayed that we have not yet received a response to our offer to the government for the supply to the national grid from our 250 KVA wind turbine set at Skeldon, Corriverton, Berbice.”
The hotel said that it had sent out correspondence to the Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson; officials of the Guyana Power and Light in Region Six and other stakeholders.
The correspondences made it clear of the hotel’s ability to contribute to national development and stable electricity supply, through the provision of excess generated energy from a state-of-the-art wind turbine.
“It has been set up four months ago, after being imported to Guyana from India over a year ago. However, as the situation stands right now, apart from feeling deflated in our quest to be supportive of national development efforts, we are contemplating dismantling the turbine, which is already set up and operational at tremendous costs to us, and shipping it back out of the country,” the hotel said in its statement.
It was made clear that the turbine has become a “white elephant” since its primary purpose of supplying the new multi-million-dollar hotel with electricity has not been allowed.
“So we are still part of the national grid, but would also like to supply the grid with affordable surplus energy from our wind turbine operation. We are calling on the government to pay heed to our efforts in supporting its green thrust and utilise all available alternative energy sources.”
Officials of the hotel said it has written and met with the Guyana Energy Agency and the MPI and have been following up and calling.
“It is highly frustrating for us.”
The turbine is located miles away from the hotel. It is the intention to have the wind turbine hooked up to the electricity grid with a system in place to measure how much energy is being generated and shared.
However, GPL has been saying that it needs specialized equipment and meters to take electricity from consumers.
In fact, GPL is currently studying a proposal of a mega-wind farm at Hope Beach. One of the problems it is facing is that East Coast network is unable to take more than 15 megawatts.

Classic Hotel is upset over the delay in permission to hook-up a wind turbine on electricity grid.

In the case of Classic Hotel, the delays are upsetting the hotel owners.
Late last year, the hotel would have also introduced a 100-seat state-of-the-art movie theater, in effect bringing back a loved era to Berbicians. It is the plan to build another.
The 100-seat theatre has the capability of not only 3-D and 2-D movies, but also Blu-Ray.
It will be the first of its kind in Berbice, with the last of old, beloved cinemas in the county closing its doors just over two years ago.
The hotel overlooks a huge parking lot, the Corentyne River and Suriname, with adequate lights and security in place.
In April, HNS Property Development Investment, the company which owns Classic, officially opened its doors. The Sugrim family also controls GuyTrac, which deals in heavy equipment and spares.
The hotel would have been a gamble for Berbice.
However, Sugrim was confident that his idea would work after thinking about it in 2014. The four-storey hotel is being powered by a wind turbine, one of the first fully ‘green’ businesses in Berbice.
It boasts presidential suites, luxurious rooms, a restaurant, bar and pool area.
With the Berbice Bridge in place and plans to bridge the Corentyne River with Suriname, there has been renewed hope in the county, which has predominantly been a farming area.
A number of applications have been submitted to Government for hotels and casinos.
A spokesperson from MPI said that it is aware of the issue and a statement in response, will be issued shortly.