…Forced to hold media briefing outdoors
Forced to hold his party’s press conference outdoors due to an extended blackout, Opposition Leader Dr Bharrat Jagdeo slammed the government for the continuous power outages.
He noted that many Guyanese are forced to endure this on a daily basis, despite the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), which is owned by Government, saving more money than ever before from fuel.
According to Jagdeo, Government has failed to provide adequate solutions to the power outages in the short and long term.
In a bid to revamp its operations, GPL recently appointed Albert Gordon, a Jamaican, as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
The appointment of this former Vice President of the Jamaican Water Commission took effect on February 1.
Gordon has replaced the former GPL acting CEO Renford Homer.
His appointment came at a time when GPL is touting the use of renewable energy, such as wind, to power its national grid.
However, Jagdeo has continuously maintained that even with a change of management, power outages remain a reality for thousands across Guyana noting that without effective action, the energy situation would only get worse.
“It’s going to get worse because they’re not taking steps to address it. There is no new power. Amaila should have been in the system from 2017, (providing) 100 megawatts. There is no new installed capacity in the horizon now,” he had said in the past.
“They’re still running with what the PPP had (while) in office, and we had planned to bring in an additional 160 megawatts of power. So those units, some of them are already old and they need to be replaced or put in reserve. But if there’s no plan, it’s going to get worse,” Jagdeo predicted.
The GPL had recently attributed the service interruptions experienced in the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) to a short circuit within a 13.8 kV breaker at Sophia.
According to GPL, service restoration efforts began immediately and all the areas were subsequently re-powered, with the exception of Kitty, Subryanville, Albertown, Newtown, Queenstown and Bel Air. These areas were repowered following the completion of remedial work to resolve a localized fault on Vlissengen Road.
Additionally, customers from No. 54 Village to Skeldon, Berbice who experienced similar outages as a result of burst conductors on the L23 transmission line, were re-powered said GPL.
