GPL submarine cable damaged again

Jun 21, 2019 News

The damaged submarine cable linking Vreed-en-Hoop to the Kingston substation has again been damaged – for the fourth time. Once again, the damage was caused by the anchor of a large ocean-going vessel.
Before this incident, this cable was damaged on Sunday, June 2, cutting the transfer of 14 megawatts of power from the West Bank Demerara to the Georgetown substations. The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) was forced to embark on load shedding which saw customers facing up to eight hours of blackout daily.
GPL teamed up with the China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC), and deep-water divers were employed to investigate. Seven hundred and fourteen metres of the cable was checked. It was found that the armour and insulation protection of the cable bore damage.
Minister of Public Infrastructure, James Patterson, related that “based on the damage we saw, the most probable cause will be the anchor of a large ship, one of the ocean-going vessels would have dropped an anchor there.”
On June 10, GPL laid a temporary 13.8 kilovolt cable from a port in Georgetown across the Demerara River. This cable was buried at a depth of 3 metres along the mooring area where the ship anchors tend to be lowered.

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