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GPL launches major customer campaign
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, GPL officials and the customer representatives at yesterday’s launching
– to place reps in all NDCs to address billing queries, other issues
Electricity consumers fearful of visiting the offices of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) will soon no longer have to do so as the company has introduced a pilot project that will see representatives taking their complaints right from within the various communities.
Queries over billing and a host of other issues will all be addressed by the community-based Customer Service Representative Programme, in collaboration with the main office.
Already, five persons from rural areas have been hired and their roles will expand as the programme develops, GPL officials said yesterday at the launching at the Duke Street, Kingston, offices of the company.
Representatives have been hired from New Amsterdam, Crabwood Creek, Charity, Black Bush Polder and the Number 52-74 Villages.
Evenutally, all 65 Neighborhood Democratic Councils across the country will have these representatives.
According to GPL, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aeshwar Deonarine, the company is on a path of recovery at the moment, especially with a number of projects in the pipeline. The power outages of last year have been largely reduced due to the addition of 20MW of extra power from new Wartsila engines, and a major US$40M Chinese-funded project is underway to build new transmission lines across the coast to Berbice, along with new sub-stations.
The hiring of the new representatives will address issues of billing and is intended to not only provide solutions, but root out the cause of the problems facing consumers.
Already, GPL has a new customer call-in centre that has open lines from Monday to Friday and emergency lines operating on a 24-hour basis.
Also at the launching were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, GPL CEO Bharrat Dindyal, and Customer Service Manager, Charlene Profitt.
According to Profitt, GPL has carefully chosen persons who are reputable and respectable from the various communities to ensure the success of the pilot project. Not only will they have to be accessible but will have to demonstrate that they are honest and reliable in solving the many issues that will crop up. Customers will know more about the representatives in coming days as GPL rolls out its media campaign.
The Prime Minister, whose portfolio covers the electricity sector, lauded the initiative and acknowledged that customers have issues, especially in service companies like GPL.
He noted that had GPL the resources, it would have gladly installed 30MWs of power instead of the 20MWs recently. However, it is all a question of resources, and with issues of loan repayments it comes back to not burdening consumers anymore.
Additionally, with the coming of the hydropower project at Amaila Falls, GPL will have to be careful with not having more reserve power than would be feasible. He cited as an example the situation in Venezuela, where drought has forced that government to drastically reduce power. He stated that this should be a lesson to Guyana.
Urging for GPL to drastically cut its loss from production due to technical reasons, and largely to theft, Hinds urged for consumers to seriously consider taking up the offer of the prepaid meters.
Already, there is no fixed monthly fee and no deposits in addition to the huge possibilities in saving, the GPL officials said.
According to Dindyal, the last seven years has seen GPL pushing its 33 engines to the peak with no reserves. It was a Herculean task.
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