PRIME Minister Samuel Hinds endorsed the Guyana Power & Light (GPL) pre-paid meters jingles Wednesday afternoon at the utility’s Commercial Office, in Main Street, Georgetown.
He told the gathering he concurred that the GPL installation of the devices would be of benefit to customers for electricity conservation, as they will become more energy conscious and cut back on usage in the home.
Mr. Hinds said it is in the interest of GPL to, significantly, reduce its electricity loss and revealed that about one-third of the current generated in the system is lost, some for technical reasons that necessitated the transmission and distribution upgrade, which is being addressed with the support of a US$40M programme.
He said: “We should take note, too, that, if GPL is to provide the service, naturally, there comes a charge with it and, if we were to have to save our own money into it, normally, we would expect a return on it and we are doing that. And, hopefully, that should bring GPL in line with what is achieved in other utilities and places in terms of technical losses.”
The Prime Minister said GPL also experiences a lot commercial loss and there are a number of components to it, the most specific one is where people may run up electricity bills way beyond the security deposit.
Mr. Hinds also noted that the electricity charge is high because people are stealing and it is time to become responsible and conservation goes with the pre-paid meters.
GPL Senior Division Director of the Information Technology Unit, Mr. Renford Homer, who gave an overview of pre-paid meters in Guyana, told the gathering that they have been for quite some time and are clearly wonderful pieces of technology.
He said GPL has introduced them for customers to better manage their electricity consumption and it exonerates the provider from disconnecting those who, for reasons unknown, have not been paying their bills in a timely fashion.
Homer said the GPL initiative goes way back to 2007 when it was first conceptualised and discussed in the management.
According to him, a number of questions were asked as the introduction was new but the meters were sourced and it was discovered that Dominica had already installed them. So, a visit there by GPL officials found that landlords were comfortable because they were fully excluded from electricity debt.
Homer said, after full consideration and some deliberations, GPL initiated the use here and urged consumers to take advantage of the service.
GPL Public Relations Officer (PRO), Ms. Shevion Sears-Murray, speaking after the GPL pre-paid meters jingles was sang by Dave Martins, said the songs tell of the benefits of using the measuring mechanisms being marketed in 110 and 220 volts.
She told reporters GPL is engaged in several public demonstrations to educate customers who are interested in using the meters.
Sears-Murray said, so far, more than 150 customers have applied for the service and others are applying on a daily basis.
Guyanese songwriter/artiste Dave Martins rendered six of the ten jingles to an excited audience in dance hall, calypso and chutney styles.