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GPL reviewing pre-paid meter system

Aug 28, 2009 News

– first Festival City consumers to get free credit

Directors on the Board of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated as well as Executive Managers have agreed to lead by example and install pre-paid meters at their respective homes.
The moves come in the wake of concerns expressed by residents of the Festival City, North Ruimveldt area over the installation of the devices at their homes as part of a GPL pilot programme.
According to GPL, the installation of the pre-paid meters at the homes of executives of the company will be followed by a similar move at the homes of other employees of the power company. These actions will be implemented within the coming weeks. This initiative was taken at a special board meeting held yesterday.
On Sunday last, the GPL installed eight pre-paid meters at homes in the Festival City area. One of those meters was installed at the home of GPL Director, Carvil Duncan.
However, residents protested the move since they deemed it as “the arbitrary installation of the devices without adequate explanation of how it will operate”. The residents claimed that they were taken by surprise when a crew from the power company turned up at their homes and proceeded to remove their old meters and began installing the new ones. “I never ask for nothing. I come and meet de people in me yard they say they want to put de thing in deh. Then they start to demonstrate but I could not understand. My husband came in shortly and they showed him how to punch in the information,” one resident told this newspaper.
The customers who received the new system indicated that they were given credit ranging from $500 to $1000. But by Monday most of the credit had expired although they had disconnected several of their electrical appliances, and they were left without electricity since then. This newspaper understands that GPL provides electricity at a little over $50 per kilowatt-hour.
“The credit ain’t done yet, but I had to take off all my things (appliances),” the resident added.
The development led to Opposition Leader Robert Corbin writing to Prime Minister Samuel Hinds requesting the suspension of the process until adequate sensitization of its workings is satisfied.
But yesterday the GPL reaffirmed its commitment to the installation of the pre-paid meters and agreed to review its implementation.
The company has undertaken to publicly discuss and announce its revised approach to the project across the country. To this end, the GPL has undertaken to grant an undisclosed amount of credit to the eight homes that have been installed with the meters as an incentive for being the first consumers of the programme.
It is hoped that the revised approach will lead the way in the general acceptance of the pre-paid meters.

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