GPL needs to focus on addressing consumer complaints

Sep 24, 2017 Consumer Concerns, Features / Columnists

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by PAT DIAL

One of the major consumer concerns has always been the lack of reliable and affordable electricity supplies. Except for the very infinitesimal number who use solar power or use their own generators at all times, the overwhelming majority of consumers depend on the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) for their electricity supplies.
From the large number of complaints both the GPL and the consumer bodies receive from customers, it is fair to conclude that GPL would have to keep trying harder and harder to improve their service.
It would be impossible to give all the various kinds of complaints consumers suffer but we will mention a few of the most common. There is the question of billing, the issue of meter-reading and estimated supplies, and the fact that it is not always easy to contact GPL by telephone.
Sometimes, also, there would be disconnections without consumers having received a bill, or disconnections after customers would have settled their bills. But the overarching complaint is the blackouts, sometimes running for very extended periods.
The effects of blackouts are far-reaching: Students are unable to study; educational establishments are unable to run their classes; thousands of children do poorly or fail their Caribbean Examinations; homeowners and small shops suffer great losses and inconveniences with the destruction of perishable goods such as fish and meat owing to their freezers and refrigerators not functioning, Small shops may not be able to open owing to lack of lights and manufacturers suffer losses in labour costs and production output. The sufferings of old and sick people are intensified by blackouts.
Sometimes blackouts and power surges destroy electrical equipment. The work of the Judiciary – lawyers’ offices and judges’ chambers – is stymied by blackouts. In other words, the GPL blackouts deeply affect social and economic life of the country.
The bitterness of public complaints against GPL are intensified because the public feels that GPL could do better if it made the required effort. The upper echelons of GPL management and Governments over the years have been conscious of the problems and have aspired for fundamental solutions.
Solar power, wind power or a nuclear power station have never been considered feasible replacements for the present system which depends on fossil fuels. Governments, as well as GPL, since the 1970’s have opted for hydropower.
The attraction of hydropower is that power would be generated from one of the many waterfalls which abound in Guyana. The main capital costs to birth a hydropower system would be roads, transmission cables and generation equipment. The technology for hydropower is not esoteric and is easily available. The main stumbling block has been finding investors for an adequate hydropower station.
Under the Presidency of Mr L.F.S. Burnham, a large hydropower plant was being built in the Interior and under President Jagdeo, the Amaila Falls project was the nearest the country ever got to hydropower. Unfortunately, both projects were the victims of political discord. The one was a victim of Cold War machinations and the other was a victim of the mindless political imbroglio which sometimes submerge Guyanese Life. Last year, there was brief talk of resuscitating the Amaila falls project but it became muted.
GPL is thus thrown back unto its own resources in its struggle to maintain its present standards and hopefully to make some small strides forward. In this effort, GPL has been greatly favoured by the unexpected fall in fuel prices and of this windfall of funds gained, GPL would be spending $11.5 billion in upgrading. We will mention the main elements of this upgrading so that the public would be aware of what they should expect in the various locations.
There would be the installation at Canefield, Berbice of a 5.5 megawatt heavy fuel generator; at Anna Regina, a 5.4 megawatt power plant; and at Bartica, a 3.5 megawatt power station. In addition, to further improve electricity supplies in Georgetown and the countryside four substations would be built at Parika, Wales, Williamsburg in East Berbice and at Kuru Kururu.
There would also be the upgrading and expanding six substations at No.53, East Berbice; Garden of Eden; Vreed-en-Hoop; Edinburgh, WCD; Kingston and Sophia. There would also be 47 kilometers of new transmission lines covering these areas.
The GPL upgrading we have mentioned above are all macro projects and we welcome them but it is the smaller complaints of GPL’s deficiencies which directly and immediately affect people’s lives. GPL must consistently address these micro matters and should do so with immediacy.
Most of these micro matters could be easily dealt with, and when there are inexplicable delays, they fuel a rising crescendo of resentment. We enjoin GPL to be more proactive in dealing with and solving consumer complaints.

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