Palms in six-hour blackout

Sep 24, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – Residents and staff of the state-run geriatric home- Palms endured close to six hours of blackout on Monday as the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) continues to struggle in meeting electricity demands here.

Power was restored at 7pm after it went out around midday, a resident and security personnel confirmed. Kaieteur News was told the lone generator for Brickdam Georgetown facility has been out of service for several months now.

Daily blackouts have plagued Guyana for years and despite the current government pumping billions of tax payers dollars into GPL the situation has remained unchanged.

Speaking to Kaieteur News last evening a resident related that they were left in the dark alone after all nurses and aids went home because of the persistent black out. A staff attached to the facility confirmed that the place was without power from 1:00 pm until after 7:00 pm.

The resident of the home told this publication that “The nurses went home because they said that they cannot work in the black out…We the old people left in here in the dark to fend for ourselves, we have some people who can’t walk. Everybody just left to suffer…”

The resident expressed discontentment at the manner in which the State-owned institution is being managed while explaining that the facility has a backup generator but it has been out of order for months now.

“Months now, the backup generation is down and is just a simple part that they want and we can’t get it… And this is not the first time that we are in the black out for such a long time. We experience black out here a lot and when the light goes, the water goes too. Then when we use the bathroom and toilet we can’t flush it is very unhygienic. People can get sick…”

“In addition to no light nor water when the power goes, the place does hot, hot because we can’t use the electric fans. It is a horrible sick situation to be in…”

The resident said that the issues with the power outage and the lack of a backup power set have been raised with the administration of the senior home.

They are very aware of the issues but the matter is nor being addressed.

According to the resident, “all that we getting are promises to look into it then months pass and nothing.” The resident lamented that the treatment meted out to senior citizens of the home should not be happening.

“We are old people who have paid our dues to society and just because we are in a home we are being treated like we are second class citizens; it is beyond unfair,” added the resident.

Efforts made by Kaieteur News to contact officials of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security under which the management of the home falls, proved futile.

Meanwhile, only last week Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo blamed the management of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) as well as the old transmission lines for the daily blackouts citizens are currently facing.

“So, they (GPL) are telling me that when they move some of these lines, it is causing instability in the system or they have to take off the power to move a bit of the line. So, some of that is happening, some of it is the old system and frankly speaking, we are not happy with the management too, look at what’s going on. So, it’s a combination of factors and it bothers me a lot personally too and we are on it every day as policymakers,” Jagdeo said.

The VP explained the he had reached out to the management of GPL and they said that, “oh the system tripped in Berbice. Then they said some piling work has caused the blackout. So I am as concerned as any citizens because we are trying to get more power into the system but there is a lot of upgrade to the transmission and distribution system we have.”

Jagdeo lamented that the current state of the grid is not stable and the more power that is put into the system it will cause further instability, hence the reason the government has gone out to tender to have upgrades done. “We have just prequalified I think about 20 companies to do a significant upgrade before the Gas to Energy project comes on stream. That means redundancy, circuits…if you have a single line and it goes off, everyone down the line gets affected. If you have redundancy in circuits then you can continue to supply people. The demand now had skyrocketed with the hotels we have nine hotels being built already some coming on stream,” Jagdeo said.

Noting that a regular hotel may use about two megawatts of power, looking at “all the new housing schemes and houses being built, air conditioning and massive investments right across Guyana, the demand has skyrocketed and even for people who have higher income now, many of them are putting in AC’s etc. in their homes, so we are in a mad rush to keep pace until that big project comes on stream next year that will put 300 megawatts into the system.” Furthermore, Jagdeo said government is focused on “a modernisation programme that’s taking place but we are limping along because we keep putting more power into the system and it gets used up all the time and we are running the same power on the old transmission and distribution system. So you have more transformers going out etc,” he added.

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• administration, Black out, light, Palms Geriatric Home, Residents, water

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