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Cummings Park Sophia residents spearhead GPL pilot project
By means of a multi-million-dollar endowment by the Inter-American Development Bank, Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) has moved forward with the new electricity distribution project to supply residents with the Prepaid Metering System in the Cummings Park, Sophia community.
Overwhelming cases of illegal electricity connections in the Cummings Park Community have been recognized as one which contribute to the losses incurred by the company.
Division Director Kumar Sharma
Hence, with the implementation of the prepaid metering system, the company is seeking to reduce losses while steps are being made to improve the quality of service through reduced power outages and low voltage among other issues.
Yesterday, members of the media were invited into the community where GPL’s Loss Reduction Divisional Director; Kumar Sharma, spoke of the history and projected outcomes of the project. Sharma said that under the previous distribution system, all areas were not powered due to the absence of the required capital contribution by the residents.
During that time, it was discovered that the number of persons that were stealing electricity off of the network was greater than the number of persons that were legally on the network.
The IDB-funded programme which subsequently followed, created an environment where illegal access to electricity was not possible. The Director said that the pilot project in Cummings Park sought to build a network where there is no secondary distribution system. He said that the customers are hooked up directly from the transformers so there are no open conductors for them to extract illegal power. As a result, there was a drastic reduction of the incidence of power being accessed illegally. Additionally, there was an increased number of applications for legal connections. Sharma acknowledged that there are still illegal connections, some of which could be clearly seen while in the area; the level of theft has decreased by as much as 80 per cent.
Currently, residents are in the process of obtaining the prepaid meters from GPL office while some already have them installed and are satisfied with the new system.
Judging from the success of the project in the Cummings Park community, the company is working to have the system implemented in 18 other communities where people are experiencing similar conditions.
Further, GPL is preparing to introduce the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) or ‘smart metering system’. Sharma explained that the new technology, which is being widely used in the North American region, allows for disconnection, reconnection and readings of consumers’ energy consumption to be done at the company’s office.
Also consumers can access the information for themselves from the internet or through text messages. GPL will be using the Georgetown business zone to launch this project, primarily in the Regent Street, Robb Street, Vlissingen Road and Avenue of the Republic areas, where 2,000 of the AMI meters will be installed. GPL believes that the new device will aid in their measures to reduce losses.
The project is expected to be launched in the next few months.
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