GPL experiences capacity shortfalls

Aug 13, 2009 News

….consumers urged to conserve

Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) has admitted that consumers in Demerara have been experiencing an inordinate level of unscheduled load shedding over the past weeks.
According to a press statement issued by the power company yesterday, while a weekly load shedding guide is published in the print media every Sunday, invariably significantly more load shedding is done.
It was explained that the weekly load shedding guide is compiled based on forecast generation availability, which generally varies between 63 megawatts and 66 megawatts. This would normally allow all circuits to be powered during the day, but requires about four megawatts of load shedding during the evening peak.
However, according to GPL, “The reality is that particularly over the past two weeks the demand during business hours has exceeded 65 megawatts necessitating load shedding during this period also.”
GPL had indicated before that over 20 megawatts of the potential 75 megawatts capacity in Demerara consists of either high speed or old units which are beyond their retirement.
While previously it was possible to undertake maintenance during the day and return units to service for the evening peak, the power company stated that this cannot be done now without necessitating load shedding as a result of the abnormally high demand.
“While every effort is being made to provide supply in keeping with our load shedding, consumers can assist in this endeavour by conserving electricity. Whatever you can do to reduce your power consumption would certainly help.”
Over the months, consumers on the West Coast of Demerara have been experiencing regular power interruptions, particularly during the evening peak, but according to GPL, this has since reduced significantly.
The company said that the interruptions started when the demand for power on the West Coast of Demerara exceeded the allowable capacity on the feeder.
“Initially, it was thought that the fault on the feeder was causing protection equipment to operate but diligent checks and evaluation confirmed that the demand for power has exceeded the allowable capacity on the feeder.”
The power company stated that while efforts are being made to manage the increased load, consumers on the West Coast are being urged to conserve electricity use, particularly during the evening peak period from 18:00 hours and 21:00 hours.
Meanwhile, GPL stated that construction of its new 20.7 megawatt plant at Kingston is moving apace. Commissioning is expected to commence in late September.
This exercise would take a number of weeks but when the plan achieves commercial operation, the capacity shortfalls that are being experienced and which is the reason for most of the load shedding, would be solved, according to GPL.

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