GPL eyes back up power lines, new sub stations

Feb 16, 2017 News

-US$31M to be expended by 2018

This week’s steady blackouts were as a result of the explosion of a critical Vlissengen Road and Lamaha Street transformer. Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Renford Homer, explained

Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson and GPL’s CEO (ag) Renford Homer

to reporters on Tuesday that “we had a conductor with a voltage of 13.8 kilovolts coming into contact with another conductor that had 69,000 volts…That’s what happened in that vicinity, so we had a boom! And fireworks.”
This resulted in load shedding that affected customers along East Coast Demerara, East Bank Demerara, West Bank Demerara and Georgetown. It also highlighted the need for the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to begin pursuing alternative power lines at crucial locations across the country, so as to avert major power failures.
Consequently, the construction of an alternative to the damaged Vlissengen Road power line is now on the Ministry’s agenda. Subject Minister, David Patterson, has indicated that tenders are soon expected to be opened for this project.
During a site visit to the previously damaged Lamaha Street transformer, Patterson on Tuesday acknowledged that GPL’s power distribution network is in need of major upgrades.
“We are going to be investing US$31M between this year and next year,” the Minister specified.
It is for this reason also, that the Ministry and GPL are embarking on the construction of four new sub stations that are expected to be set up at locations in Wales, West Bank Demerara; Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke-Linden Highway; Williamsburg, Corentyne and Hydronie, East Bank Essequibo.
This would be the continuation of a US$40M initiative that was started under the Chinese infrastructure programme which ended in 2014. “Now we will be entering phase two,” CEO homer said.
Additionally, the six existing substations within the system are to be expanded to produce better voltage stability and reduce technical loses, since power would be travelling across shorter distances.
Meanwhile, responding to all the criticisms the government has been receiving in relation to the perceived inefficient distribution of electricity, Patterson was quick to defend that “this is what we inherited, and what we are addressing.”
He went on to praise the efforts of the GPL workers who detected and eventually fixed the problematic Lamaha Street transformer.
“The crew was dispatched on Sunday night, literally with torch lights, starting from Kingston walking the entire stretch looking for the problem which was quite difficult,” Patterson highlighted.
He clarified also that contrary to the rumours he has been hearing, the power outages were not as a result of insufficient power, or any man-made mischief.
“The system is made to protect itself, so what happens is, as soon as there is a spike, the system shuts down,” the Minister said.
Nonetheless, with the new programmes coming on stream, officials are promising less blackouts.

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