MODERNISATION of Guyana’s archaic electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) network, operated by the state-owned Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc, is moving apace for substantial completion by the December 2013 deadline.
This disclosure was made during the company’s public presentation held last Friday at Duke Lodge in Kingston, Georgetown.

According to a GPL press release, this presentation is mandated by GPL’s licence and is aimed at informing and educating the public on the company’s financial and operational performances.
In his remarks during the presentation, GPL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Bharat Dindyal highlighted the company’s progress since 2003, and highlighted the investments to transform the quality of services to all customers through expansion and modernisation of the company’s infrastructure.
Reflecting on the challenges and accomplishments of GPL, since the retention of a local management team in 2003, Dindyal noted that contrary to the perception being created publicly, the company has made important strides despite facing challenges with funding.
According to the press release, in 2003, GPL had inherited backlog maintenance, inadequate and suspect generation, poorly maintained and inadequate transmission and distribution infrastructure coupled with severely compromised metering infrastructure which resulted in huge technical and commercial losses.
“Over the 10-year period under local management, GPL has increased base load generation capacity by 44 MW (megawatts) and now has available capacity of 129 MW to meet a 103 MW peak while serving over 170,000 residential and commercial customers,” the release stated.
It noted that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has provided over US$11M since 2006 for loss reduction and continues to look at more investments to help the company deal with this pervasive problem.
“Right now we are playing catch-up, it is very easy to criticize GPL when we have so much to do and the priority list remains very long. When our 26 MW plant is commissioned early next year and when the other projects that the Chinese are constructing are completed, we would have an excellent foundation on which to move the company forward,” Dindyal said.
Referring to the massive Infrastructural Development Programme (IDP), which the company has embarked on, he said that this is the first major investment in technical loss reduction in the power company’s history.
The IDP will deliver seven new 69/13.8 kilovolt (kV) substations, approximately 96 km of 69 kV overhead transmission lines, the upgrade and expansion of three existing substations, over 240 Km fiber optic network linking all substations from Skeldon in the east, Edinburgh in the west and Garden of Eden in the south to a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System at a new control centre at Sophia.
The transmission lines and substations will serve to integrate major load centres along the coast, and will provide the capability to move bulk power from large, efficient, heavy fuel oil fired generating plants in Demerara and Berbice to those load centres.
Additionally, 26 new 13.8 kV primary distribution feeder outlets at the substations will allow existing long, overloaded feeders, especially on the East and West Coast of Demerara, to be segmented into shorter, more lightly loaded sections.
According to the GPL release, these developments will result in improved quality of supply, system stability, improved voltage regulation, and reduction of technical losses, and will also prepare the system to accept and distribute power from the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project.