The Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL), has difficulty with protecting its distribution system, and this is responsible for the poor delivery of electricity. This is according to Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson.
In an article disseminated by the Government Information Agency (GINA), Minister Patterson explained said “we have enough generators working and power provided, but what happened is that we have a problem with the distribution of that power, and that is one of the issues we have to address with Lot A of the Power Utility Upgrade Programme.”
He noted that there are many hurdles with the distribution of electricity especially on the coast, but efforts are in place to ensure that the distribution system is improved.
Acknowledging that the power company has a lot more work to do towards achieving this goal, he noted that efforts will be intensified to ensure that this is feasible by the end of 2017. This will ensure that in the event of emergencies resulting from accidents or a fallen tree, the disruption will be isolated to that particular area and not affect the entire coast like in the past.
“When there is an accident, the whole feedback is damaged, and every time this happens we give citizens the same excuse; we don’t want this anymore so we’re moving ahead to have this improved for the future,” the Public Infrastructure Minister underlined.
The protection of the distribution system will be complemented with the installation of the ‘redundant’ lines and the upgrading of sub-stations, Minister Patterson said. This means the Ministry of Public Infrastructure will begin pursuing alternative power lines at crucial locations across the country, so as to avert major power failures and upgrade the six existing sub-stations within the system to produce better voltage stability and reduce technical loses.
Currently, GPL has a contract out and received responses from three reputable international firms whose representatives will be coming shortly to look at the entire system, “and to upgrade our protection; so if there is a problem that particular section will only be affected,” Patterson said.
