Region: Latin America and Caribbean
Country: Guyana
Sector: Energy and Power
Keywords: Knowledge Lab, Hydropower, Energy and Power
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Document Summary:
The document contains the final report of the Amaila Falls Hydropower PPP project on in Guyana.
Document Details:
Since 2009 Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) has supported Guyana's efforts for protecting its rainforest from exploitation and degradation and for changing its currently oil fuelled electricity sector to emission-free power generation. As reward for Guyana's endeavours towards these goals, Norway in 2014 deposited USD 80 million in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) earmarked for Guyana's equity share in Amaila Falls Hydropower Inc (AFHI), a Special Purpose Company for realising the 165 MW Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) as a public/private partnership BOOT project supported by IDB.
Sithe Global, the private partner and main sponsor in AFHI, withdrew from this position in August 2013 after the Guyanese National Assembly did not vote unanimously in favour of a proposition presented by Sithe Global for certain project features, including raising the ceiling for maximum annual payment by Guyana Power and Light (GPL) as power off-taker. Thereafter, efforts continued, supported by IDB, to establish a new main sponsor in AFHI. This came to a standstill after a new coalition government created by the earlier opposition parties took power after the parliamentary elections in May 2015. The new government has confirmed its devotion to the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), which was introduced in 2009 by the former government and confirmed by its updated LCDS declaration in 2013.
With the aim of finding a way forward for the transition of Guyana's power generation system, Government of Guyana represented by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Natural Resources and the Government of Norway represented by the Minister of Climate and Environment, decided in December 2015 to perform "an objective and facts-based" assessment of AFHP.
Updated: April 12, 2022