– New CEO describes network as ‘unstable system’

THE Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) entire system experienced 25 shutdowns in 2017 as a result of network and infrastructure issues.
This was disclosed Tuesday by recently appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Albert Gordon during a Public Utilities Commission (PUC) hearing at Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, Georgetown.

Also in attendance were Deputy CEO (Admin) Renford Homer; Deputy CEO (Technical) Elwyn Marshall; Corporate Secretary to GPL’s Board of Directors Lorraine Bancroft; Divisional Director of Loss Reduction Parsram Persaud and other senior GPL officials.
“Normally, if you have a system that goes down once in 25 years it is a cause for concern, but GPL had 25 shutdowns in one year, that is not a reflection of the management or operations, but it’s the nature of the configuration of the system,” the CEO said.
He explained that there are many challenges especially with the network itself, drop in infrastructure and configuration of the network which has caused many of the power outages.

“Normally what you would want is to generate the power then send it up into a transmission network that is stable, and then distribute from the transmission network to the customers; that is not what we have at Kingston,” Gordon said.
As such, he said businesses and even persons who would want to incorporate renewable energy on a large scale into the existing GPL system are unable to do so because it would make the system more unstable.

“We cannot put a large amount of intermittent renewables such as solar, wind or hydro on an already unstable network,” he said.

Further, the CEO explained that when a large unit goes out or one is up for maintenance and there is a system shortfall, the remaining generation capacity sometimes is unable to take off the load because the spinning reserves are small.
“Shortage in generation capacity is a challenge. The nature of the units is also a concern given the type of technology that is predominant in the system and we have to try to address some of those,” he noted.

SMART TECHNOLOGIES
Adding that the system must be transformed and integrated, Gordon said the way to go is to use smart technologies to reform the existing GPL systems.
Gordon, who is a Jamaican and has been on the job for two months, said GPL has a bright team that works under significant constraints.
However, he said that there have been substantial investments in capital projects and changes in the operations overtime, but there is still a lot more to be done and GPL is now trying to accelerate that transformation.
Gordon said GPL’s infrastructure must change along with generation replacement and upgrades.

“The transmission infrastructure is inadequate, there is need to develop transmission networks as we need more substations, more high voltage lines, and we are overly reliant on distribution network which has aged and become overloaded,” he said.
He said there is need to improve customer service along with the environmental standards and most importantly a reliable power generation.
Also, the CEO said it is necessary for certain communities to be regularized. This requires a combination of state agencies’ interventions.

“We plan to work with the government to get that done … we want to focus on sustainability and financial viability in operations,” he said.
Deputy CEO (Technical) Elwyn Marshall said over the next three years about 80,000 smart meters with supporting infrastructure will be installed under the Power Utility Upgrade Programme (PUUP) and GPL internal meter replacement programme.
Marshall further said the utilisation of new smart metering technology will allow monitoring of voltage levels at individual consumers while the AMI meters which are capable of utilising radio frequency to transmit data will also be installed at relevant points in the network.

In addition, there will also be rehab of distribution networks through PUUP and the construction of express feeders from Edinburgh, Vreed-en-Hoop and Onverwagt stations.
Further, he said new generating plants will be commissioned at Bartica and Anna Regina.
Divisional Director of Loss Reduction, Parsram Persaud, said GPL plans to upgrade over 300km of low voltage and primary network to improve technical efficiency.
As such, he explained that load balancing on low voltage and primary network will improve technical efficiency while more secure networks will be installed to prevent power diversions.

Gordon, who has over 30 years of experience in planning, development and operation of electric, water and sewerage utilities, took up the post on February 1, 2018.