I NEED to clarify some evident misunderstandings and consequential misguided charges appearing in the Wednesday, January 14, 2015, edition of Kaieteur News, in the article entitled, “Where is IDB $$M given for line losses? – APNU’s Greenidge asks”.

The $$M have gone into a series of studies of electricity losses – technical and non-technical – in various geographic areas, in various improved and more costly metering, in reducing tampering and information-loss, in various ways/degrees of hardening of distribution lines, so as to make it more difficult to obtain electricity, except through the meter, and so on.
It was out of one of these studies that the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc.’s Loss Profile for the first quarter of 2013 was prepared, showing the losses and separating technical and non-technical losses, in the geographical areas served by various feeders. The networks’ average total losses of about 31% in the first quarter of 2013 was not the highest recorded, as the article stated. Indeed, total losses were estimated to be over 40% unto about 2009, and have been falling as GPL Inc. worked to reduce same. In 2012, 2013, the fall seemed to have stalled, prompting deeper studies and contemplation of costly systems which would be alerted on the withdrawal of electricity, except the withdrawal is being done through a meter.
This information was not sprung on anyone. Recall that for this first quarter of 2013, electricity losses were disclosed to Sector Committees in the National Assembly, and more recently, presented in their entirety to the public at large, by paid advertisements in our national daily newspapers. It was intended that everyone should see the losses in his area – wherever he/she lives; in Wakenaam, East Coast Demerara, sections of Georgetown or its environs, West Coast Demerara, Bartica, Berbice, wherever. It discloses a range of total losses from 9.8% to 60%, and non-technical losses from 0.2% to 42%. What a wide range!
This was a total disclosure, and not selective, not biased, not politically, or otherwise, inspired, but just factual, seeking what, I have no doubt, my colleague Members of Parliament (MPs), Carl Greenidge and Joseph Harmon, want – Guyana to match, and even ‘better’, Barbados, which has been reporting 6%, 7%, 8% total losses, 2% to 3% non-technical losses, over the years, with traditional, conventional distribution networks and meters. In a number of areas, we are already nearly there, as can be seen in the publication.
I am aware that among the thousands of persons on each feeder, there would be many, many honest customers, and a number of dishonest customers who are doing everything to obtain more electricity than is recorded on their meter. One can imagine that it would be good to determine losses on smaller and smaller areas, with fewer and fewer customers, and this is one direction in which GPL Inc. is heading – to adopt smart metering systems, with additional meters on the service transformers. The meters communicate with each other and provide specific intelligence when the electricity flow, totalled from the customer-meters, is much less than what the transformer-meter is recording, i.e. above the level of reasonable technical losses. Of course, such high-tech systems are not cheap. As Minister Responsible, I am concerned about embarking on such sophisticated systems which could entail expenditures of US$100 million and more (inclusive of other “hardening” features on the distribution network). We could spend all the money, but make little headway, without a change in our electricity culture.
For the record, let me say for the benefit of those who may not have been told before, and re-assure those who already have heard it, that:
· Every customer is billed according to the published tariff categories – no cheaper, or free, electricity, with no one exempted, certainly not formally and not informally, either. Any, and every, such case, is against our law, and perpetrators are liable to criminal proceedings.

· Street-lighting, if it is to be, is the responsibility of the ‘owner’ of the streets – the Ministry of Public Works and Communications for the national roads; the City and Town Councils, and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs), for ‘local’ roads. Private citizens have been ‘putting in’ street lights, most of them without any authority and with no contract with GPL Inc. GPL Inc. has been removing and confiscating all ‘un-owned’ street-lamps. I have been getting calls from so-called ‘PPP/C streets’ and ‘non-PPP/C streets’, complaining about GPL Inc. getting on with this aspect of the job.

* With respect to optical cable, it is these days common for electricity utilities, for good communications and control across their network, to have a line with an optical cable incorporated within or attached to the outside of, or alongside. GPL Inc., for some time, has had a Power Line Carrier (PLC) system operating between Garden of Eden and Sophia Control Centre, and the recently completed transmission-upgrade incorporates an optical cable across the 69kV transmission network. Optical cables are now essential for modern, computerized systems control (SCADA), and, yes, there is additional capacity which can be leased to others. The existing ESRA and the new, draft Telecommunications Law, speak to utilities working together, providing access, collocating, sharing, but with no discrimination, on an even playing field. Any preferential treatment can be challenged in court.

* This Government is against all types of crime, whether petty, serious, violent, ‘white-collar’, or drug-trafficking; and in the case of electricity-theft, we go after all – the many, small illegal connections, the sophisticated by-passes, and the direct connections. One would be aware that different degrees of “knowledge” are involved in stealing electricity from GPL Inc. and contractors, “knowledge” such as would be had by current and past employees of GPL Inc. GPL Inc. stays watchful and alert, and has a high turn-over in areas where knowledge required to provide electricity may be used to provide un-metered electricity.

* I want to assure my colleague MPs, Greenidge and Harmon, that I have no desire to stigmatize anyone. There is no glory, no achievement, in that. What I want is a change in our electricity culture, and the avoidance of huge investments to fight electricity- stealing, which might bring little returns. I am keeping the faith that our people will follow their leaders, once they are given a consistent message – explicitly, implicitly, and ‘body language’. I beg forgiveness if I am wrong, but the language of my colleagues, Harmon and Greenidge, in my view, provides excuses, if not justification, for electricity-stealing, and is not helpful, most of all to those who look to them for leadership. I call again on my colleagues and, indeed, all leaders, to lead those with whom they have some standing, into right paths which bring sound success and satisfaction.

My colleague MP Greenidge, could put his mind at ease, for the IDB $$M is being well spent, well applied, in increasing our understanding and identification of electricity-losses. As usual, the IDB is keeping a watchful eye on how the money is being used, in keeping with its procedures.

SAMUEL A. A. HINDS, O.E., M.P.
Prime Minister