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Explosion at Good Hope substation responsible for power outage – GPL
(Kaieteur News) – The Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) on Saturday said that an explosion at its Good Hope substation is responsible for the power outage that left several areas without electricity for over an hour.
In a statement, the organisation said that at around 12:04 hrs a loud explosion was heard at the Good Hope Substation, which resulted in the facility going offline, and causing a system disturbance.
The damage at the substation.
“Upon investigation, smoke was observed emanating from the main breaker panel in the switchgear room. The Good Hope Substation is one of our main substations and serves as an interconnection point with the Sophia and Columbia Substations, facilitating the transfer of power between Demerara and Berbice,” GPL said.
The Good Hope Substation going offline resulted in an instability occurring on the grid, which caused several other feeders to go offline. Restoration began immediately in increments and affected areas had their power restored at around 13:10hrs, with the exception of customers from Success to Hope, East Coast Demerara.
However, efforts are currently underway to repower customers from these areas, which are also supplied by the Good Hope Substation, using alternative sources.
“A technical team of Engineers and Technicians is conducting a detailed assessment, after which the necessary remedial works will be carried out to resolve the issue at the Good Hope Substation,” GPL added.
The mobile substation is also en route to the Good Hope Substation as a temporary measure until remedial work is completed at the Substation.
On December 11, it was reported that in light of the two major blackouts Guyanese experienced in 24 hours, GPL blamed a damaged cable for the first instance and heavy machinery moving too close to transmission lines for the second.
In a statement, GPL said customers in Demerara and Berbice experienced an interruption in electricity supply on Tuesday evening, following a heavy arching and short circuit at the 69kV transformer at the Kingston substation, where smoke was observed emanating from the transformer panel. It said a technical team was immediately dispatched to investigate the root cause of the disturbance, which was reported to be a damaged cable.
As a precautionary measure, the damaged cable was then isolated to allow the safe restoration of power. Immediately restoration began in an incremental manner and continued until all the affected areas had power restored sometime around 00:30 hrs on Wednesday.
Hours later, on Wednesday at approximately 11:19 hrs., the 69kV line linking the Edinburgh and Vreed-en-Hoop substations tripped while transmitting approximately 15 megawatts (MW) of power.
“The sudden loss of generation caused a cascading effect across the grid, resulting in service disruption to customers in Demerara and Berbice. Teams were instantly dispatched to determine the reason for the disruption. It was determined that the disruption was due to the movement of heavy machinery in close proximity to the transmission lines.”
However, within 30 minutes of the outage, power was restored to some communities and full restoration followed in a 90 minutes period after. In this light, the Ministry of Public Utilities and Aviation said it continues to work with the Guyana Power and Light Inc. to maintain reliable supply of electricity.
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