Latest update January 18th, 2025 7:00 AM
5610 illegal connections removed in 2013 – GPL
…2266 persons arrested, 3640 illegal streetlights removed
By Rabindra Rooplall
Last year 5610 illegal connections were removed and 2266 persons arrested, according to Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL).
In addition 3640 illegal streetlights were removed by the company last year. These had accounted for $23.3 million in losses.
The utility company will be investing US$60 million to fight loss reduction. The funding will come through loans and grants from the International Development Bank (IDB) and the European Union (EU).
Illegal connections
The funds will be acquired through a loan process and at a one per cent interest rate. This initiative, according to GPL would significantly cut loss reduction to eight per cent, with five per cent being technical losses and the remaining three per cent being non-technical losses. These funds for the project will be obtained towards the end of 2014.
The power company continues to operate with huge losses due to discrepancies, with Region Four accounting for more than 73 per cent of the grand total.
In 2013, the company suffered $565M in losses as a result of tampering by consumers, but remained positive that with the implementation of the Smart Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters this would be minimised.
Last year, 2,266 meters were found to be tampered with, costing the company some $542M. Another $23M lost as a result of the illegal street lighting.
Despite expending billions of dollars to reduce technical and commercial losses, the state-owned Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL), continues to operate at a loss. From 2007 to 2011 the company had capital investments totaling $33B, says the GPL 2011 annual report.
In 2010, GPL embarked on loss reduction. This was done through the US$42M Chinese Project.
GPL has undertaken a vigorous approach to loss reduction, and initiated its loss-reduction project that targeted mainly commercial losses.
The project initially adopted practical measures such as upgrading and controlling metering of its largest customers, and inspecting all zero-metered customers. Subsequently, GPL embarked on a campaign to inspect all its customers, replace defective meters and change the unusual existing interface arrangement for low voltage users, which is extremely susceptible to fraud.
With the support of the Unserved Area Electrification Programme financed by the Bank, GPL hired the services of an international consulting firm, PPA Energy. The consultancy was completed in 2010 with an extension to their contract to revise technical losses. After about four years of consultancy, PPA provided support to address the reduction of commercial losses and a performance management regime which facilitated the evaluation of measures taken by GPL to improve commercial losses. The “Evaluation and Prioritization of Loss Reduction Investments”, served as the basis for the strategy to address the electricity losses problem. Commercial losses were deemed to be the core of the total losses and priority was assigned to this segment. Among the high priority actions identified by the study were the removal of illegal connections, the replacement of faulty and tampered meters and the replacement of the billing system.
Based on this analysis and recommendations, the Utility focused its actions to tackle commercial losses through: i) the appointment of a Divisional Director, Commercial Services and the establishment of an approach to the leadership of the Loss Reduction Division involving both an experienced international consultant and a local manager; ii) improved reporting from the Loss Reduction Module which provided guidance on what is being achieved with regard to the installation of ITRON meters for larger maximum demand accounts; iii) the procurement of a new Customer Information System (CIS); and iv) recognition of the issues associated with coordination and planning.
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