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OLD TRANSMISSION & DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM, POOR MAINTENANCE CAUSED GPL TO FAIL – BADAL

Nov 06, 2019 News

‘Change Guyana’ led by former Alliance For Change financier, Robert Badal, has announced big plans to revamp the embattled Guyana Power and Light Inc.
At the party’s press briefing on Tuesday, Badal cited the old power grid, lack of redundancy in the transmission and distribution network and poor maintenance as some of the key factors that caused GPL’s downfall.
According to Badal, the company only has the capacity to supply 142 megawatts (MW) of electricity, while noting that the national demand exceeds the supply by some 60MW. He pointed out that this is the very reason why Guyana experiences such prolonged period of blackouts.
He also highlighted that GPL’s technical and commercial losses exceed 27 percent and noted that the electricity rates are still very high across the regions.
Badal was quick to point out that the previous administrations have repeatedly failed to address the problems of the unreliable supply of electricity with GPL running a loss of close to $4B per annum needing constant Government bailouts.
“How longer must we wake up to blackouts and being greeted by blackouts when we arrive home after work? How much longer must our kids wait to do their homework because of a blackout? How much longer must a business or factory be closed to wait until electricity is restored?”
What’s to come
The Change Guyana head announced that come 2020, if the party is placed in Government, Guyanese can envision a new GPL with affordable electricity and no more blackouts.
Badal said that Guyana can see the production of electricity to be private sector managed and owned with electricity being supplied to GPL under a Power Purchase (PPA) arrangement.
GPL will shift to using liquid natural gas (LNG) as a more cost effective and environmentally friendly option.
Among the other plans, a modernised Smart Grid to ensure reliability, better management and control of technical and commercial losses is expected.
Further, the former AFC financier stated that, “successive administrations must take responsibility for the current state of GPL and blackouts”.

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