Govt. removes 15 businesses from GPL’s grid to ease blackout

Oct 06, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – Faced with a high demand for power beyond its generating capacity, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) will “remove” its large commercial consumers with self-generating capacity from the grid during peak hours.

According to a notice published by the power company, the move, which was made to prevent widespread power disruptions, would see large commercial consumers being cut from the electricity grid from 18:00hrs to 22:00hrs.

GPL said the move was necessary since it had contacted the consumers in question and requested that they self-generate during peak hours. However, only a small percentage of such consumers responded to the company’s request. “This is a temporary but necessary measure for the company to prevent service disruptions,” GPL said.

The power company recently announced that it had attained an unprecedented peak demand of approximately 182 Megawatts (MW) of power. Consumers connected to GPL’s Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) have experienced frequent blackouts in recent weeks and the company noted that growths in infrastructural development as well as the current heat wave the country is experiencing are key factors behind the blackouts.

However, Former Minster of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson laid the blame squarely at the feet of the government. He said the administration’s failure to put measures in place to match the country’s growth trajectory is responsible for the spate of power outages. “The government has been opening malls, parks, hospitals and hotels to much fanfare since coming back into the office, claiming the same was the result of their policies. A primary school student would have known that if on one hand, you willingly add additional commercial entities to the grid, then you would need additional generating capacity,” Patterson said earlier this week.

In addition to consumers connected to the DBIS, households in Bartica in Region Seven have experienced prolong hours of blackouts recently. Last weekend, power outages left many residents in anger while businesspersons complained of heavy losses of perishable goods.

On Wednesday, residents along the Essequibo Coast between Supenaam and Charity complained about the frequent power outages. Reports are that a generator which was taken to Bartica last weekend to mitigate the power woes at the township was on standby on the Essequibo Coast. The generator in question was installed at Bartica under Patterson’s tenure as Minister of Public Infrastructure; however, it was ferried to GPL’s Onverwagt sub-station earlier this year to support the DBIS.

blackouts, DBIS, Government, GPL, Minister of Public Infrastructure

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Govt. removes 15 businesses from GPL’s grid to ease blackout

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