GUYANA Power & Light (GPL), as part of its 2012 infrastructural development plans to boost the electricity supply to consumers, will see the completion of several projects. Among them is the Vreed-en-Hoop Sub-Station on West Coast Demerara as well as the transmission link and the submarine cable connectivity, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Bharat Dindyal told the Guyana Chronicle.
He said, during the recent 2011 holidays, there were a series of problems at West Coast Demerara and GPL is presently importing “quite a bit” of electricity from the Garden of Eden Plant on East Bank Demerara to meet demands on the other side.
Dindyal explained that, due to difficulties with the link at the Garden of Eden Plant supply situation, particularly West Coast Demerara is affected and there are some worries at West Bank and East Bank Demerara.
But he said the good news for consumers on the West Coast is that the equipment for developing the infrastructure is expected to arrive here shortly and, given the priority, GPL is hoping that, by year end, it would also complete the Edinburgh Sub-Station.
Dindyal said the Vreed-en-Hoop Sub-Station is also to be completed and the transmission link between those two will also be accomplished. In addition, the submarine cable connection between Kingston, Georgetown and Vreed-en-Hoop will be in place and the utility will be able to deliver current more reliably to consumers on West Coast Demerara.
According to him, many of the problems now being experienced by customers on the West Coast Demerara will be overcome once the transmission link is facilitated by year end.
“We are continuously trying to work to inspect and correct defects with the West Coast Demerara link and try to maintain as stable a supply as possible. We, currently, have almost 10 megawatts (mw) there and this is between Versailles and Leonora,” he said.
Dindyal said the peak demand on West Coast Demerara is about 30 mw and the situation is still tenuous but GPL has managed as best it could.
He cautioned the users on West Coast Demerara that, while the supplier is working to improve the supply, 60 percent losses there is unsustainable and GPL has been making strenuous efforts, for the last couple of months, to deal with widespread electricity theft.
GPL will continue to expend significant time and resources to try and deal with that problem which is a major concern for the entity, since the losses are running at 31.3 percent up to half of last year. Half of that is from technical losses with the majority coming from theft because every percent loss amounts to over $4M and 12 percent theft is almost $5 billion.
Dindyal said GPL will be pressing the Chinese contractors with infrastructure works on West Coast Demerara when the equipment gets here next month as that is a priority.
GPL will also be trying to push ahead with other facilities, including the new Georgetown Sub-Station, Golden Grove Sub-Station on East Bank Demerara and two sub-stations at Good Hope and Colombia, on East Coast Demerara.
He said, regarding the link with Berbice, the contractors have indicated that, by June next year, they should finish all the facilities which would see the Demerara and Berbice systems interconnected and the transmission connections.
The new control centre and the supervisory control acquisition system, scanner and the fibre optic network to support the scanning from Skeldon East to Sophia, Greater Georgetown; then from Edinburgh, Berbice to Sophia; from Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara to Sophia are other accomplishments planned.

NEW RADIATORS
Dindyal said the five and a half mw Wartsila plant will return to service at Garden of Eden and, currently, new radiators are being installed on the 50 hertz plant in Kingston, Georgetown, with two machines and that should finish by end of February.
He said GPL is also working to rectify the many low voltage complaints received and which have been quite a big problem owing to the increase in demand from domestic customers, mostly in rural areas.
Dindyal said GPL is also working as fast as possible to try and deal with conductor upgrades and installation of additional transformers. The 36 mw in the city will be further boosted with two new engines and a new power 35 mva transformer has been received for the Kingston Plant for installation in the coming weeks.
He said this year GPL is working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to execute some projects through a US$5M loss reduction loan with most of it going to technical losses and includes the redesign of the network in Cummings Park, Block ‘E’ Sophia.
“Although GPL had constructed a network in the area over three years ago, we have not energised all the transformers there, because of widespread electricity theft and, with the financing from the IDB, we will redesign the entire network at Cummings Park with the intention of giving service to all the consumers who have come forward to make payments,” Dindyal outlined.
He said, unfortunately, after spending over $40M, GPL has to spend tens of millions more to redesign the network to deal with electricity theft and, while the money should have gone to other areas for people who have been asking for service, it has to go back to re-invest in the Cummings Park system.
Dindyal said, with the new design for Cummings Park, GPL will be assisted by experts being financed by IDB to advise on the social management programme, as they have to go into the community to engage consumers and remind them of the dangers of electricity theft, so as to move forward.