IN reviewing the Guyana Power & Light Inc. (GPL) Operating Standards and Performance Targets (OSPT) for 2018, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has found that most of the company’s standards fell short of what constitutes an “efficient utility”.

While the company has improved on its 2017 performance as it relates to the standards of System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) and the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), the goals set for 2018 were still not met.

In a release on Tuesday, the PUC indicated that is has decided not to impose further penalty on the entity which has imposed a five per cent of the total dividend payable to the company’s shareholder(s) in the calendar year 0f 2017 last year when it failed to meet its OSPT for the year.

The licence granted to the GPL has made provision for its OSPT to be submitted to the PUC on a one and five-year basis. The company is judged on the eight targets categorised as: customer interruptions, voltage regulation, meter reading, issuing of bills, accounts payable, account receivable, system losses and average availability.

The targets must be included in the company’s development and expansion program which is submitted for approval by the minister. It also provides that by March 30 of each year beginning in 2012, the PUC shall receive GPL’s performance for the previous calendar year with the respect to the OSPT.

An analysation of this performance by the PUC determines whether GPL has failed to achieve and/or to reach the specific targets. Failure can result in a monetary penalty in an amount no more than 25 per cent of the total dividend payable to the company’s shareholder(s) in the calendar year.

On June 20, 2019, the PUC conducted the review of GPL’s 2018 performance at a later date than March 30 as it was properly constituted at the time. The company made its presentation to the commission at the Duke Lodge.

Regarding customer interruptions, the PUC found that the SAIFI standard, which sets out to limit the average number of outages received by customers in 2018 to no more than 70, was not met. The average number of outages received by customers in 2018 was instead 106.

Meanwhile, the SAIDI which limits the average duration of outages that a consumer receives during 2018 to no more than 80 hours was instead pegged at 112.41 hours.

The explanations offered by GPL for the failures were that there was inadequate backup redundancy in the generation and transmission of systems; there was a significant deficiency in the design and configuration of some substations and a significant portion of the transmission’s infrastructure were in a poor state contributing to constant failures and maintenance challenges.

Regarding voltage regulation, the standard required GPL to, “seek to maintain in stable condition voltages of more or less than five per cent of the nominal voltage and more or less 10 per cent following a system disturbance”.

GPL had expressed from the inception of the OSPT reporting this would be difficult to monitor and report on the voltage supplied to each customer and the same went unmeasured in previous years. At the 2018 OSPT report, the company spoke of plans to utilise the Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to address the challenge and reported recently that it is still committed to doing such.

“There is compelling evidence to suggest that the voltage received by consumers in some areas is not consistent with what the company has been contracted to deliver. This often results in damage to consumers’ equipment,” the PUC indicated. However, the commission noted that the company rolled out some 30,000 AMIs which will greatly assist in the reduction of system losses and its ability to do better in the coming years.

When it comes to system losses, GPL went over the standard limit of 26. 6 per cent by 1.1 per cent. “The company did not achieve the set target,” the PUC stated, adding: “It nevertheless reduced system loses by approximately two per cent year on year.”

The company also reported that a field survey undertaken in 2018 revealed that there are 19,000 street lights countrywide of which 9,000 were not metered and therefore escaped the billing cycle. On the matter of meter reading, GPL was required to read 97 per cent of maximum demand consumers and 90 per cent of non-maximum demand consumers but achieved 91 per cent and 90 per cent respectively.

It explained that missing the maximum demand target was due the inability of the handheld devices to access data. The devices use radio frequency to communicate with meters. With a “short time line for corrective action”, GPL stated that this resulted in a higher than intended estimation of bills, a similar issue highlighted at the 2017 Hearing.

Regarding the issuing of bills, GPL was able to meet these targets. While it was required to issue maximum demand bills within seven days and non-maximum demand bills within 10 days after the meters have been read, it issued the same within an average of five and eight days respectively.

On the matter of accounts payable, GPL went over the 26-day limit to setting with its creditors only by one standing at an average of 27days to do the same.

With regards to accounts receivable, GPL’s cash collection cycle stood at 54 days when the standard commits it to a 30-day cycle while it exceed the average availability standard of 80 per cent by 6.9 per cent. In its general consideration of the GPL’s OSPT for 2018, the commission stated, “The commission further wishes to signal to the company that its inability to achieve all of the standards as set out in the company’s 2016 to 2020 Development and Expansion Programme does not auger well for the efficiency of the company’s vis-à-vis its customers.”

However, it considered that the company’s failure to improve its services in the face of the 2018 five per cent penalty and has “decided not to impose a further penalty at this time.” “…most of the standards fall far short of what constitutes an efficient utility. There remains much to be done to attain these standards and we can only hope that in the near future that there will be incremental improvements in the quality of service to consumers,” the PUC stated.