DEPUTY Chief Executive Officer at GPL, Aeshwar Deonarine yesterday told reporters that the power company is capable of meeting the increased need for electricity by its customers during the festive season.

At Regency Suites Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown, he said that Guyana Power and Light Inc. is ready, based on the generation, transmission and distribution network.
And noting that in Demerara they have an existing peak demand which occurs in the evening of about 79MW, Deonarine said that for Christmas they are expecting that to go up to 82MW.
However, in the system there is a 80MW Wartsila machine, all serviced and operational, in addition to non-Wartsila machines, giving a total capacity of 90MW in Demerara, with about 8MW above the peak of what is expected.
He pointed out that in Berbice they are covered – at Skeldon there are three machines, a 5MW set which is up and running, and they are about to complete the overhaul of the other two for the Christmas season. Deonarine added that they have sets at Canefield and at Onverwagt in Berbice.
On the network front he said that they are still doing some maintenance and this is expected to be completed by December 15, 2013 and after that there will be no scheduled power outages.
Deonarine said further that if there are any outages it will be because of something unforeseen but they will have additional crews at ready to assist in emergencies and they are also replacing defective poles.
He concluded, “We are more than ready for the peak season this year.”