Blackout is very present

Apr 09, 2011 Editorial

Load-shedding is once more the order of the day and as good Guyanese, all the people would do is sit and mumble. Those who have become addicted to television would swear to high heavens. Some of them actually trace the progress of the blackout and visit those locations where there is power.
But in most cases people would simply retire early because they have all but discarded supplementary lighting efforts. Businesses have installed generators either as their primary source of power or for back-up generation.
Those who rely on self generation say that they find their operation cheaper to run. They say that in some cases where they would have paid the power company more than one million dollars per month they now spend about one-third that on the fuel costs.
Poorer families relied on lamps and flambeaux in the absence of electricity. Of course, the gas lanterns are no longer in vogue; people rely on candles and paraffin wicks (more like wicks soaked in edible oil). The slightly more affluent would have torchlights and other battery-operated lighting devices.
Indeed, scarcely has a day gone by without people being made to realize that the electricity situation was most tenuous. Even in the best of days there would be power outages. December when the need for power was at its highest people would always expect a complete shutdown of the electricity system. On occasions the government would intervene and would import subsidiary generating sets at great cost but this was always seen as a necessary expense.
Then the time came when the power company made a conscious effort to ease power outages because the situation had become embarrassing. The people on West Demerara were plagued by power outages to the extent that they contemplated attacking the power station. In the end the government installed some mobile generators at Leonora.
It was the same in the city. The embarrassing power outage led to the purchase of some brand new Wartsila engines capable of generating 20 megawatts. This was more than enough to satisfy peak demand. Such was the delight on the part of the powers that be that they pronounced blackouts to be things of the past.
At the commissioning ceremony these people trotted out the best in technology to protect the machinery. There were circuit breakers and shut off switches. There was no question of power feeding back and knocking out machinery.
One year after the commissioning, there is news that one of the engines has collapsed. The result is that there is a significant reduction in electricity to households and to business places. The days of blackouts are not yet over. They may not be as dire as when there was a mere eight megawatts in the system and there was the fear that even that engine might have collapsed leaving the entire country in perpetual darkness.
There are not many countries that experience the level of power outages that Guyana does. The very poor ones—yes. But the developing countries and the developed ones would only suffer this fate after a natural disaster. Guyana is lucky that it is not prone to natural disasters.
It is not that Guyana is cursed. Perhaps it may be that the country has lost the cream of its skilled crop. Dr Yesu Persaud, during this week, lamented the loss of skills and wished for the day when there would be a reversal of the skills migration.
Those days cannot come fast enough. Every creature comfort is dependent on electricity. Its’ absence, no matter how periodically, has sent those with some disposable income, to buy receptacles. When the power goes, water goes.
Entertainment is affected because people rely almost exclusively on the television for their entertainment.
There was a time in the United States when for four days there was no power in a town. A year later there was a baby boom. The analysts concluded that the people resorted to the oldest form of entertainment.
Guyanese are so accustomed to blackout that they will not gravitate to the oldest entertainment but there are those who will capitalize on the cloak of darkness to conduct a reign of terror. These are the thieves and bandits.
It therefore goes without saying that continuous lights cannot come to this country fast enough.

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