THE Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) on Friday said despite suffering load-shedding for the past few days, normal power supply will be restored to citizens across the country today.

Speaking at a press conference held at its Kingston, Georgetown office, Public Relations Officer (PRO), Shevon Sears, told reporters that there was a generation shortfall in the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) representing all the served areas.

“Everything will return to normalcy on Saturday. We expect to finish the Number 2 engine on Saturday. That would bring our generation capacity up,” she assured. Sears said too that the normally available generation capacity, including the Skeldon Wartsila Units and the Co-Gen Plan is approximately 137 megawatts. The total available generation capacity in the DBS currently stands at 106 megawatts.

“The day peak is approximately 109 megawatts, while the night peak is just about 110-112 megawatts, which means we are operating with a generation shortfall of approximately three megawatts during the day peak and six megawatts during the night peak.”

The PRO said too that there are two major reasons for the outages and categorised them as planned and unplanned. As it relates to planned outages, the three Garden of Eden plants (DP1, DP3 #2 and DP3 #3) were subject to planned maintenance. DP1 #1, which constitutes 5.5 megawatts, has been unavailable for about six weeks for major overhaul. Those machines, Sears assured, should return to service soon.

In the case of DP3 #2, 6.9 megawatts remains unavailable due to a damaged alternator, while DP3 #3, carrying the identical megawatts engine, is unavailable for a “major overhaul.”

Meanwhile, as it relates to unplanned maintenance, the #1 Skeldon Energy Incorporated (SEI) 5 megawatts plant is unavailable, while another 2.3 megawatts out of the Onverwagt Power Station was lost as a result of a small fire which occurred Thursday night. Repairs are currently being done at the Skeldon plant. Those repairs should be completed within the next two weeks.

When asked whether customers whose equipment would have been damaged as a result of the unscheduled power outages would be compensated, Sears said there is a process. She explained that while there are planned and unplanned outages, there are some instances where customers experience power outages for different reasons.

She said that there may be “localised faults,” where trees fall on the network, or there is a trip in the system in a particular area. “We advise customers to report the faults…so we can check our system.” Customers are required to fill a claim form and submit the required documentation. Upon submission, an investigator is dispatched and if GPL is found culpable, then “we compensate those customers.”

She described the process as “very successful” and assured that “if we are found to be guilty we pay.” Sears could not provide the statistics readily on the number of customers who were compensated by the Power Company for the year. She committed to provide same soon.