…according to GPL
GUYANA Power and Light said yesterday that widespread power outage in Demerara just after midnight Tuesday was caused by a rat that entered the switchgear and came into contact with a power cable.
The power company said that at approximately 00:15 hours on Wednesday, protective equipment at the 20.7 megawatt plant in Kingston was activated, causing a major disruption to supply in Demerara.
An inspection revealed that a rat had entered the switchgear and came into contact with live parts, GPL said.
The release added that the plant was designed to prevent the ingress of rodents, but an unused cable gland was found to be open.
Wartsila has been mandated to inspect the entire plant and to improve its rodent eradication measures, GPL said.
GPL noted that on identifying the problem, all the switchgear was inspected before the plant was returned to service after 02:15hrs. The power cable that failed was serving consumers in Kingston, Cummingsburg, Lacytown, Thomas Lands and Kitty.
GPL was able to successfully serve most of the consumers from alternative circuits; but while attempting to restore service to consumers in Lacytown, a switch at the corner of New Market and Main Streets failed, causing another system disruption.
The utility company said that before 06:00hrs, all consumers were repowered, except those in Lacytown.
GPL said, “With CXC exams being written yesterday, GPL had decided to delay the replacement of the damaged switch until 15:00hrs. Repairs to the damaged cable at the 20.7 megawatt plant were completed, and by 17:00hrs  all the circuits serving Kingston, Cummingsburg, Lacytown and Kitty were normalized.”
And another outage occurred in the Kingston, Main Street area at about 12:45hrs as a result of a damaged connection on a feeder. GPL was able to quickly restore the system before the scheduled shutdown at 15:00hrs.
“GPL apologies for the inconvenience caused,” the release concluded.