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Electricity shutdown caused by operation of heavy equipment – GPL

May 07, 2022 News

– refutes Patterson’s claims of poor maintenance

Kaieteur News – The Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) has blamed the recent spate of black outs on operation of heavy duty equipment by contractors. In fact, GPL said the operation of heavy equipment causes 60 percent of the electricity shutdown.
In a release issued on Thursday, the electricity company explained that it is a reality that since last year, heavy equipment operated by contractors has caused almost 60% of all shutdowns.
“Since the last shutdown, occasioned by heavy equipment less than two weeks ago, we have had two more incidents, one where we intervened and prevented a trip and another which caused the shutdown of the Edingburgh Substation, interrupting power to thousands of customers,” the power company stated.
Meanwhile, in the same statement, GPL is refuting the claims made by former Minister David Patterson as it relates to the management of the power company. Patterson had claimed that the recent outages were due to lack of proper maintenance and failure by GPL to procure adequate parts to service the system.
In the release, GPL noted that contrary to what former Minister Patterson asserts, the use of alternate spares came after Power Producer Distributers Incorporated (PPDI) was given a contract in 2016.
That contract, the company claimed continued until 2021 when GPL discovered a breach of the agreement.
The electricity company explained that “The use of cheaper off the market spares allowed PPDI to realize healthy profits while GPL had to pay for the early replacement of the major components.”
GPL went on to note that “Earlier this year, PPDI had to cut invoices submitted for replacement parts used since 2018. It turned out that these are some of the off-market spares that failed prematurely that GPL was being asked to pay to replace.”
According to the power company, Patterson seems to have bought the Salesman pitch that you can buy superior spares cheaper directly from the Manufacturers.
“This is an old strategy used by folks walking around with suits and briefcases. It is known that Wartsila utilizes many Suppliers of components for its power plants. The Quality Assurance/Quality Control regime Wartsila employs is world class, and very often, the components/ parts supplied directly to users do not meet the same rigid standards,” GPL said in the release.
Additionally, the company noted the new cable across the Demerara River, The 13.8 kV submarine cable that was installed from Vreed-en-Hoop to Princess Street has only approximately 15% of the capacity of the 69 kV cable between Kingston and Vreed-en-Hoop and cannot be considered a redundant cable, nor does it improve the security of the system.
At best, GPL said it allowed approximately 4MW to be transferred to Georgetown. “The Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System had already suffered a major failure before the current Government came into office.”
Further GPL noted, it is important to note that substations do not generate power, and no new substation was constructed between 2015 and 2020.
“The last set of substations was completed before 2014. During the 20 + years Wartsila had the Operation and Maintenance Contract with GEC/GPL, the various Power Plants maintained an availability above 98%. Their Maintenance Programme was rigid and utilized only Original Equipment.”
According to GPL, generation-related problems contribute to less than 2% of outages, resulting mainly from feeder trips, network switching, planned maintenance, and accidents involving vehicles and equipment.
The power company noted “The investments needed to modernize Transmission and Distribution (T&D) is significant, and GPL is currently finalizing an RFP to automate the entire system while a complete upgrade is being done.”
“It would take approximately 18 months to complete the T&D maintenance that accumulated since 2017 due to the inadequacy of the maintenance programme,” the power company added in the release

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