MINISTER within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar on Monday said that some 96 per cent of power outage woes were as a result of accidents, which caused interferences in the power supply.

The minister made this known while speaking on power generation issues at the Office of the Prime Minister’s end-of-year press conference.

Minister Indar indicated that the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) came off of a good year with lots of power to generate, and even having excess generating capacity as compared to the current peak demand for power.

However, he said that almost on a daily basis, reports are sent to him about cars driving into power poles, trucks breaking down some electricity main line, or a contractor with a crane driving piles in close proximity to the 69,000-volt lines causing disruptions to customers.

Giving another example, he noted that it was just a day or two after December 26 when someone was cutting a tree that fell on a main wire and plunged the entire Eccles community into a blackout.

“So, these things; you know, you get wary of them… 96 per cent of the occurrence in 2024 in that vicinity was due to some kind of intervention with the transmission line,” he said.

Further explaining, he said that when a transmission line is hit and the two wires collide, it causes power relays.

These relays, he added, act as a protection for the entire system, which further causes the system to shut down.

However, in handling these matters, Minister Indar said that GPL was instructed to have these persons charged, and their names and faces posted on the company’s social media pages, and even in traditional media outlets.

Some of these cases, he said, are currently before the courts.

Noting the police presence on the roadways, Minister Indar said that persons are being taken to court, and yet still the issues he highlighted continue to occur.

During the press conference, it was noted that the total generation capacity has increased significantly.