…GPL hails performance as commendable

LAST Christmas the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) did not give Guyanese its heart as the popular Christmas song by Wham goes, but the company delivered a “commendable” service during the holiday season.

The company is usually criticised by the public throughout the year, mainly because of the power outages and usual inconsistences in the delivery of the service. GPL, despite existing challenges, maintained a stable supply of electricity during the Christmas season. This was the second consecutive year that the company was able to deliver such a service during the holiday period.

According to a press statement from GPL, in 2019 there were five shutdowns, an amount which was “unprecedented.” In comparing the amount of shutdowns to previous years, the power company said there were 12 shutdowns in 2018 and 25 in 2017.

“The aim is to completely eliminate these events, even though this will be a challenge until existing generation, Transmission and Distribution (T&D) systems are upgraded,” said GPL.
The company said the improvement in performance had resulted in customers in Demerara, Berbice, Anna Regina, Bartica, Leguan and Wakenaam only experiencing minimal service interruptions, which were largely attributed to localised faults.

Despite the challenges faced because of an aged T&D network, the utility company has been diligently conducting planned maintenance activities on the network, while having an increased number of emergency response crews on standby to address localised faults.
The power company said the planned maintenance activities were executed by GPL’s workers across the country, who worked beyond their normal working time to complete the tasks.

According to GPL, between December 18 and December 31, 2019, the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) had a total of 144.7 Megawatts of generation capacity available, while the Power Plants at Anna Regina, Bartica, Leguan, and Wakenaam, together had a total of 17.18 Megawatts. These megawatts were available due to GPL’s efforts to efficiently service aged generation plants, some of which are semi-retired.
In addition to the aged generation plants, the company also faced man-made challenges in the form of accidents, during the season. GPL said accidents resulted in damage to some of the company’s poles.

Those accidents, coupled with a few transformer failures, resulted in minor service disruptions in some communities. Amidst this setback, GPL’s field staff expedited work to restore electricity.

“Moving forward, the power company, intends to continue to ensure there is sufficient and available capacity to meet its demand, while at the same time improving the quality of its supply to all customers,” said GPL.

Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Albert Gordon, said planned maintenance for the upkeep of units as well as other operational works will continue for the new year, as the company continues its journey towards becoming a “world class utility.”

He added that the power company is also pursuing a number of developmental and expansion plans, which, once implemented, will see the systems operating throughout the year with little chance of service interruptions.

In 2019, it was reported that GPL was seeking partnerships to remedy its shortfalls in power generation and the government through the Ministry of Public Infrastructure was moving to amend a section of GPL’s licence to allow the purchasing of power from external sources.

A notice signed by Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, stated that GPL’s licence restricts the company from purchasing power from any person other than an Independent Power Producer (IPP), which produces power from renewable energy sources.
The IPP also does not include businesses whose main business is not the generation of power and which supply no more than 10 megawatts (MW).