GPL to bury damaged submarine cable 15ft deep as repair commences

The Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) on Saturday revealed that it has commenced remedial work to its 69 kV submarine cable which links the Vreed-en-Hoop (VEH) and Kingston Substations.

The armor and insulation protection of the cable was first damaged in June and then another part was damaged in August, causing major blackouts across the coast since the cable was used to transfer 14 megawatts of current to the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).

The power company in a statement said due to the extent of the damages, two repair kits had to be sourced from China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC) which laid the cable in 2012.

“Both kits were manufactured and shipped to Guyana. Following the arrival of the kits, the contractor, CMC immediately commenced work to retrieve and repair the compromised sections of the cable, approximately 0.7 and 0.8 km offshore the Kingston Power Plant,” GPL said Saturday.

Upon completion, the power company said the cable will be reenergized to transfer power generated by the VEH Plant to supply the DBIS.

However, to avoid such recurrence, the cable will be reburied in the Demerara River to a depth of approximately 15 feet, GPL stated.

As part of GPL’s contingency response to the damaged cable, a smaller 13.8 kV submarine cable was laid across the Demerara River in June to transfer 5.5 Megawatt of power from the VEH Power Plant to decrease the constant blackouts.

The cable was installed in March 2012 by the CMC as part of a US$5 million project for the upgrade of GPL’s transmission and distribution systems.

In 2016, over $100M was spent to fix the damage., but GPL did not say what will be the cost of fixing the current damages.