Regulator raps GPL over system losses

Apr 29, 2017 News

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Regulator, Public Utility Commission (PUC), has stopped short of fining the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) but has warned that improvements will have to be made.

The decision was announced yesterday by PUC in an order following a public hearing last month in which GPL officials reported on their operating standards and performance targets for 2016.
As part of the licence for the state-owned company, it has to report periodically on set targets and standards.
According to the PUC, in reviewing the company’s performance, it took into consideration the resources available to it during the period under review, as well as other factors that may have had an impact on the company’s overall performance.
“We find the company’s efforts creditable, but not for system losses. Our earlier comments indicate that with greater commitment, the losses could have been lower than the previous year. Given the weight that should be attached to this standard, an under par performance casts a shadow on the overall performance…”
PUC said that it has taken note of what was reported by the GPL officials, and did “not think it appropriate at this time to make any award of monetary penalty on the company. Their failure to meet certain targets as adumbrated was mitigated by the fact that they were not excessive and the impact on consumers was not inordinately burdensome,” PUC said in its order.
However the PUC had a warning.

“We do not, however, wish for it to be held as a precedent for the current performance of the Company, but we expect our comments herein will excite their interest and obligation owed to the public at large and get on with the business of fulfilling their mandate in providing a safe service at reasonable prices.”
The ordered was issued by PUC Chairman, Justice (Ret’d) Prem Persaud and members Maurice Solomon and Dela Britton.
Representing GPL at the forum at the public hearings were Renford Homer, Deputy Chief Executive Officer –Administration; Elwyn Marshall, Deputy Chief Executive Officer –Technical; Loris Nathoo, Divisional Director –Finance and Parsram Persaud, Divisional Director –Loss Reduction.
GPL reported on Customer Interruptions; Voltage Regulation; Meter Reading; Issuing of Bills; Accounts Payable; Accounts Receivable; System Losses and Average Availability.
With regards to Customers Interruptions, GPL reported that the intent of this standard is to limit the average number of outages a consumer would have received during the year to no more than 75 hours.
However, the standard was not met, with the average number of outages a consumer experienced in 2016 being 118 hours. The average duration of outages that a consumer would have received during the year was no more than 90 hours. The average duration experienced by consumers during the year was 125.8 hours.
Reporting on Voltage Regulations, GPL is supposed to seek to maintain in stable conditions, voltages of ± 5% of the nominal voltage and ± 10% following a system disturbance.
The company has maintained from the inception that it would be difficult to monitor and report on the voltage supplied to each customer. This standard as in previous years was not measured.
On meter reading, GPL said that for 2016, it was required to read 97% of maximum demand consumers and 90% of non-maximum demand consumers.
The standard with respect to both was not achieved. For non-maximum demand consumers, 94% of the bills were read; and for maximum demand consumers, 88 % of the bills were read.
On the issuance of bills, the power company was required to issue maximum demand bills within seven days after the reading of the customer’s meter and within 10 days after the reading of non-maximum demand meters. GPL reported that on average maximum demand bills were issued within five days after the meters were read and non-maximum bills within 8 days after the meter was read. It meant that GPL did well in this area.
With regard to its accounts payable, this standard commits GPL to settle in full with its creditors within 26 days.
GPL reported that it took on average 25 days to settle its indebtedness with its creditors.
The company, however, did not do well to collect. With its accounts receivable, this standard commits GPL to a 30 days cash collection cycle. GPL reported that its average cash collection cycle was 37 days. This standard was therefore not met.
On system losses, GPL reported that it was at 28.6% of dispatched power for 2016.
For the reporting period, GPL has stated that the system losses were 29.2% of dispatched power. The standard was not met.
For 2016 GPL was required to achieve an average availability of 80%. The company reported that average availability was 84%. GPL fell short here too.

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