GPL should compensate consumers

Nov 03, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The spate of blackouts which electricity consumers have to endure cannot be caused by maintenance problems. The lengthy period with which consumers have to be without power and the fact that all three counties in Guyana are subject to extended power outages, suggests that there is a major shortfall in generation.
The public should not feel comforted by GPL’s promises that line maintenance in the coming days will alleviate the problem. If the cause of the problem is a shortfall in generation – as is suspected – then no amount of line maintenance will alleviate the spate of blackouts which are affecting all consumers, but particularly those in Berbice, Essequibo and East Coast, which are the most affected areas.
Blackouts caused by interruptions due to accidents in the transmission of power are not a major cause of worry, because such problems are usually remedied very quickly. Power outages resulting from such sources tend to be for short periods. The public is usually understanding about such problems.
The present crisis in the energy sector, however, does not seem to be a passing phenomenon. The intensity of the power outages, the fact that load-shedding schedules appeared in the newspapers a few weeks ago, and the failure of the problem to be resolved by now, is cause for concern.
The situation will naturally lead to persons equating what is now being experienced with what was experienced in the past when consumers, for years, were subject to daily eight-hour power outages.
Anyone who has lived through that period will appreciate how adaptable Guyanese people were. There were no major protests over the matter. The letter pages of the newspapers were not crowded out with persons complaining about the effect on their meat and fish, or on the slowing down of production.
People accepted because there was no toleration for dissent. People learned to live with the power outages. If this nation owes the bauxite industry anything, it is the fact that many households got power at nights only because after ten o’clock, the demand for power in the bauxite industry fell and the excess was channelled into the national grid.
The present spate of blackouts is taking place just as the power company has signed a billion-dollar management consultancy contract. That contract is not likely to reduce the present blackouts. The power outages are taking place just after there was an adjustment of the arrangements between GPL and Wärtsilä, a traditionally reliable supplier of electricity.
Guyana is not going to go back to those days, even though some people have premonitions of a return to dark times. The electricity sector has the generating capacity to satisfy demand. The demand may not be satisfied at the moment, but there is capacity to satisfy national demand, unlike in the past when the country could not generate enough power to satisfy 25% of peak demand. As a result, businesses were forced to scale back on production, and this hurt the national economy.
The Guyana Power and Light is quick to disconnect consumers when they do not pay their bills on time. They do not bother to call you to advise that your bill is outstanding. The disconnection crew turns up and switches off your power. Households have to pay a reconnection fee of $3,500 and you have to wait until the connection crew is available to reconnect your power.
GPL should not be surcharged for the failure to supply electricity on a reliable basis to consumers. If consumers are disconnected for not paying their bills on time, then the accounts of consumers should be credited whenever GPL fails to supply them with power.
The Public Utilities Commission should open a hearing into compensation for consumers as a result of the failure of the power company to meet its obligations to its customers. GPL has failed to satisfy its obligations to consumers, who should be entitled to compensation for hours upon hours of blackouts, for the loss of food items, for the shortfall in production and for the inconvenience of not having power.

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