Mahdia residents gearing to manage new $150M electricity grid
A NEW $150M Unserved Areas Electricity Programme (UAEP) grid, at Mahdia, in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) will be managed and operated by a team of residents as Mahdia Power and Light (MPL). The company, which has already been registered, will be a separate entity from Guyana Power & Light (GPL) and members of the Management Committee would be required to manage it in an efficient and cost effective manner.

Mr. Horace Williams, Engineer-in-Charge of the UAEP in Office of the Prime Minister, gave the explanation during a recent visit to Mahdia to oversee final  arrangements for a hand over of the utility.

That electrification project is one of many funded by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Government of Guyana in two phases. It started in December 2005 and has delivered electricity to thousands in rural and hinterland areas.

About the imminent start-up of MPL, Williams said arrangements are in train for financial assistance, from Government, to the management team until the operation can be independent.
He said the aid is being considered because it would take the fledgling entity about three months before it can begin earning adequate revenue from consumers.
“They have to buy fuel up front. They have to pay staff and so on. So they are likely to get initial help from Government. They may have to pay this money back, though,” Williams stated.
He said the UAEP will be handing over, to the MPL management, ladders, belts, gloves, testing instruments, tool kits for the generators and other materials necessary for the two megawatts generation and it will be their responsibility to take care of them.
The new MPL electricity system has not yet been formally commissioned and the Board of Directors is to be named.
Region Eight Chairman, Mr. Senor Bell said private citizens, Public Sector employees and businessmen in the community are being considered, for appointment within the next four to six weeks.
When the arrangements are firm, residents of Mahdia will benefit, for the first time, from 24 hours electricity daily and at a considerably cheaper rate than that which they have been paying to a private provider in the past.
Up to last week, acceptable wiring standards had not been achieved so that load tests could be carried out at the homes of a targeted number of residents.
But electricians had begun installing meters in homes and business places at Mahdia, where wiring systems had been certified by electrical inspectors.