The recent GPL shutdown was just waiting to happen

Feb 19, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I wrote late last year about the need to break up the current structure of both the GPL and Guysuco, but you did not apparently have space to publish that letter. Today I shall concentrate on the GPL. I find that the latest shutdown was just waiting to happen and there will be more recurrences. GPL needs to be re-engineered and set up in such fashion that its management is made easier.
There is not much being done in respect of maintenance and herein lies the problem. When the network was much smaller and less complex in that fewer and smaller voltages were being dealt with, the maintenance was above par. Today with a wider network and dealing in higher voltages there is greater need for full maintenance of line-plant.
This idea of building another 69KV line through the heart of a built-up area of the city is fraught with many difficulties which I am quite sure the management has not factored into the equation. I believe the management has other options that can be looked at and pursued. First of all we need to investigate if the current 69KV structures can be made to take an appreciable extra load. If the need to modify the spans of the said structures and what additional line hardware is required to make all this possible. A completely new line will cost to my mind much more that a properly planned modification. Our engineers need to step up to the plate and deliver. A new line with new contractors especially of the Chinese kind will bring with it all sorts of financial complications and make the Parking Meters program look like an alter boys’ affair. Instead of listening to the politicians the technical staff needs to just get out and do their jobs.
Cyril Walker

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