…localised outages for shorter periods expected
The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) is assuring its consumers that it remains committed to providing reliable electricity supply during the holiday season.
The power company stated that every effort is being made to ensure the availability of its generating units; however, the inadequacies in the aged Transmission and Distribution (T&D) network continue to pose problems.
This has been exacerbated by persons accidentally coming into contact with the facilities. “The most recent was December 23, when a privately operated excavator came into contact with one of our primary distribution line, resulting in the entire line going out of service and outages in the Eastern Georgetown area for approximately an hour. Therefore, we urge the public to exercise caution when operating machinery within close proximity to our infrastructure”, the company stated in a missive.
The company further stated that it concluded pre-planned maintenance activities on the T&D network on December 16.
The team, however, continues to patrol and monitor the various systems to ensure that issues that could cause potential widespread outages during the holidays are addressed.
In some instances, this may mean having localised outages for shorter periods of time. We apologize for these situations, but they are necessary, given the vulnerabilities in the T&D network, to prevent more widespread outages and potential total system shutdown.
The following is a breakdown of the situation for the areas served by GPL. It should be noted that in all instances the distribution network is radial and failure of any one component is likely to result in outages to customers. We are using our best efforts to prevent these failures and to act promptly when they occur in order to minimize supply interruptions.
Meanwhile, in 2017, GPL has recorded a total of 25 total system shutdowns. For 2018, it managed to reduce this to 12, with one since September.
As the power company works towards improving its service delivery, it takes the opportunity to wish all its customers a safe and enjoyable holiday season.
