Skeldon Co- Gen plant out of operation, blackouts hit Skeldon

Nov 10, 2012 News

The generating equipment at the Skeldon Sugar Factory were down for maintenance over the past couple of weeks and this has resulted in heavy blackouts for the residents of the Upper Corentyne area. Several letters expressing disgust over the electricity issue in that heavily- populated area appeared in the newspapers recently whereby writers were seeking answers into the blackout problems being faced there.

Skeldon Sugar Factory Co- Generation Plant

Regional Chairman of Region Six, David Armogan, told Kaieteur News that Chief Executive Officer of Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL), Bharat Dindyal, was asked by President Donald Ramotar to visit the Skeldon Sugar Factory Generating section. He did so on Friday last.
“One of the big problems at Skeldon is that Skeldon had gone out—It came off completely from the system—in the sense that it was doing major repairs and was not able to supply any electricity to the grid and as a result, there were long blackouts in Skeldon”.
The rest of Berbice is also experiencing blackouts frequently due to a damaged 69kV transformer at the Canefield Power Station. Armogan has expressed disgust over this situation, “because people were calling me to find out what was going on and I, myself, had no answer for them. So I got in contact with the CEO and he came down here last Friday and was able to put a few things in place that has brought some relief to the situation”.
Skeldon Power Plant, he said, “was doing maintenance to its machines that were offline for a couple of days and not supplying any power to the grid”. The problem was compounded by Onverwagt being down. It is back online, he stated.
Armogan said, however, that some more work is being done at the West Berbice Onverwagt Power station, “because Onverwagt is connected to the Skeldon grid and these two stations supply electricity to the Upper Corentyne area. Once Onverwagt comes on stream and Skeldon comes back on stream, the situation is going to be abated at Corriverton”.
Dindyal, he said, has assured him that they are working around the clock “to get the transformer back in place”.
Area Manager of GPL, Mr. Ayube Bacchus, had asked Berbicians to bear four more weeks with the company until this crucial transformer is put back online but Dindyal has committed to cut this time by half. “Hopefully, the entire situation should come back to some degree of normalcy, I am assured, before the Christmas season starts”.
Armogan was cautious and said that the situation needs to be monitored because only promises of better electricity supplies are being made. “Then we go back to the same old situation, so I am hoping that this time, the situation would become stable for a very long time and the people would not have reason to complain”.