West Demerara residents complain of continuous ‘blackouts’

Nov 07, 2008 News

West Coast Demerara residents are at their wits end, following the constant power outages in their communities by the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL).

Residents told this newspaper that what used to be a one time per week power outage is now an ‘everyday’ thing, as they are forced to put up with ‘blackouts’ sometimes two to three times per day.

Kaieteur News understands that whenever there is a power outage on West Coast Demerara, it usually stretches from Parika to Den Amstel, sometimes even further down.

This is causing the residents to become utterly frustrated, as according to some businessmen who are involved in the meat business, the constant power outages is resulting in great losses for their business, since most of their meat become spoilt due to the GPL problem.

Since the electricity supply keeps fluctuating on a regular basis, without any warning from the power company, freezers, fridges and other electrical equipment of residents are damaged for residents.

In this regard, residents are calling on the present administration to look into their situation, as it is causing much distress to them. However, already dealing with no electricity, residents also have to put up with receiving no water. This also has to do with the power outages by GPL.

At its last press conference, the power company had noted that the factors contributing to the overall problems at GPL have been blamed for the recent problems, including the increasing customer demand and the breakdown of aged units.

It was explained that the problems were complicated by the fact that six Wartsilla units had to be overhauled during the year, as well as the intermittent problems with the availability of the GuySuCo Skeldon sets.

More than two weeks ago, blackouts around the country appeared to be imminent for the rest of the year as GPL had been reaching its capacity even as the Christmas season approaches.

However, the power company had said that it is confident that a dark Christmas has been averted, given that the power company has managed to overcome the recent hurdles plaguing GPL.

Currently, the generation capacity for companies on the Demerara grid is 67 megawatts, and the demand for electricity is fluctuating at the generation peak. In order to facilitate this, GPL noted that the 5.5 megawatt Wartsilla Unit has been overhauled.

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West Demerara residents complain of continuous ‘blackouts’

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