…following blackout caused by fire in GPL engine room

FOLLOWING a pre-dawn fire at the Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) engine room at Bartica on Sunday, which plunged the community into darkness and left consumers without power for several hours, power was restored by 18:00hrs on the same day, GPL said.

A press release coming out of the power company’s headquarters in Georgetown, yesterday explained that around 4:30 hrs on Sunday, the Potaro Road feeder breaker failed. Staffers on duty at the time noticed that smoke was emanating from the cubicle, and quickly shut the plant down as a precautionary measure. The damage was limited to the circuit breaker; control and DC supply circuits, GPL assured.

Noting that the circuit breaker is the ‘air blast type’, GPL expressed relief that, “there was therefore no material available that could cause an explosion.” The release explained that, typically, when there is a failure, the insulating material burns slowly, but the breaker has to be extracted from the cubicle before any fire-fighting effort can be effective. It was in this regard that the combined efforts of the GPL staff on hand and the fire fighting crew yielded much success at minimizing the destruction.

Meanwhile, the release advised that by 13:00hrs yesterday personnel from their Engineering Services Unit at the location were expected to resume work at replacing the cables for the control and DC circuits.

GPL has apologized for the inconvenience caused, and wishes to thank consumers at Bartica for their patience and understanding.