DESPITE being quite a challenge, Guyana Power and Light (GPL) has been able to cut technical and commercial losses from 38.8 per cent in 2005 to 28.7 per cent in 2014, according to Chairman Winston Brassington. 

Brassington said further that GPL is highly encouraged by the reduction and believes that the company is headed in the right direction.
Last year, GPL announced a new Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-European Union (EU) funded project totaling US$65 million, a large part of which was geared towards reducing technical and commercial losses.
Under the project, the power company is using an integrated approach to reducing losses, where it will be building an entire distribution system, installing Smart Meters.
“With this new integrated approach, the engineers have calculated, that for area that we complete, we can reduce the losses measured between the transformer measuring the power going into the area and all of the power being sold, we can reduce the losses all the way down to eight per cent,” the GPL Chairman disclosed.
With this new approach, he said, the new technologies GPL is looking to use will allow it to monitor electricity consumption remotely, both per area and by customer.
SMART METERS
“These Smart Meters offer the opportunity for us to use new computer technology to monitor consumption in real time. It is no doubt that GPL is facing increased customer demand even as we expand capacity – our revenue also reflects this. In 2005, our total annual revenue totaled $16.4 billion, at the end of last year this figure was up to $33.1 billion, almost 90 per cent more,” Brassington said.
He said GPL’s revenue can be broken down into a number of areas. First and foremost, he pointed out, is the expansion of demand both in terms of customers and the average consumption per customers, and second, the reduction in technical and commercial losses which have translated into more sales and reduced generating costs.
On this note, Brassington said that the bulk of the movement of revenue in the last decade has been driven by goods in demand and improving efficiency.
“More of our activities will be focusing on the customers, not only to minimise blackouts or to respond to emergency calls or respond to customer request in a timely and courteous manner, but also to be more efficient, to deliver a cost effective service that all of us can be proud of.”
REPORT THIEVES
“But our customers, we need your continuous support and encouragement, we need you to keep providing feedback when there is a problem, we need you to report those stealing electricity, we also need you to look at conserving electricity and with your support, we believe what we are doing at GPL, we can try to provide an even better service to you,” the GPL Chairman said.
Recently, President Donald Ramotar had said greater attention needs to be paid on education, contending that little do stealers of electricity know that apart from undermining the development of the country, they are undermining their own development.
The power company has been making commendable strides over the years. At the beginning of 2005, GPL had some 127,000 customers, but this figure increased to 177,000 at the end of 2014, some 50,000 customers or 40 per cent more compared to 2005.
“This is an astounding increase; a good part of this was funded by the Government and some of it through funding from the Inter-American Development Bank. All of these new customers have increased the demand for power. In the last 10 years, residential sales have increased 65 per cent more than where it was in 2004. So this is not just a 40 per cent increase in volume but is an increase in the volume of consumption for the average household,” Brassington said.
In fact, he said, an examination of the entire GPL system (residential, commercial and industrial customers), has indicated that the level of sales, measured in kilowatt hours has increased over six per cent per annum in the last 10 years.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Government as a shareholder continues to give substantial financial support to GPL. In the last decade, it has provided well in excess of US$100 million to GPL, and according to Brassington, if all the small loans are taken into consideration, the figure will be probably close to US$200 million.

(By Tajeram Mohabir)