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Dark Days Loom if GPL allocation slashed – Dindyal
Any cut to the budgetary allocation for 2013 to the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) Inc has severe implications for the provision of an efficient supply of electricity to the Company’s 164,000 customers warns the GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal.
The cautionary remark was made in light of public statements of intentions to reduce the government’s proposed $11.20 B. budgetary allocation for 2013.
GPL’s Chief Executive Officer, Bharat Dindyal.
According to Mr. Dindyal, reduction of the sums intended for GPL, will significantly hinder GPL’s ongoing infrastructural development projects. He noted that at present, the Institution has several major projects being executed simultaneously under a loan agreement between the Government of Guyana and China Exim Bank for the construction of, among other facilities, seven new substations which are expected to be completed by the end of this year.
At present, three of these sub stations have been completed and in service providing a much improved quality of electricity supply to customers on West Coast Demerara. However, there are others, on East Coast Demerara, which are currently under construction along with almost 100 kilometers of 69 KV transmission lines.
In highlighting the implications of the proposed cuts, Dindyal stated, “If the projects are not completed this year, we foresee serious problems in GPL’s ability to deliver services to supply the increase demand for electricity in Demerara and Berbice.
“The equipment is here and the construction work is in progress but if we do not have the finances to pay the contractors, works would have to be halted. As a result, GPL would experience serious network challenges in East Demerara and Berbice and would be forced to resort to statutory load shedding to ensure the network capacity is not exceeded during peak demand hours.”
Over the years, GPL has worked assiduously to ensure that its customers are not subject to frequent tariff increases ‘while we are allowed through our Licence to apply tariff increases, the company will forego $28B in tariff increases to the end of this year, cushioning the impact of the volatile fuel prices internationally, Dindyal stated.
He also confirmed that apart from major infrastructural setbacks that would be experienced; a number of other small projects, including metering for new customers, would be severely affected. “We would have to stop taking new customers sometime this year because we do not have the money to buy new meters.”
As a state owned entity, the budgetary allocation to GPL’s customers are intended to help the Company foot its ever increasing fuel bill which is expected to be over $24.7B this year. Capital allocations also finance upgrades and expansion of the utility company to meet the growing electricity demands of the country.
From 1992 to present, the peak demand of the Demerara system has increased from about 33 MW to 87 MW.
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