The new Chief Executive Officer at the Guyana Power and Light company, Albert Gordon, has unveiled a plan that he hopes will stem the decline in service by the Guyana Power and Light Company.

At a media event hosted by the company last evening, the new CEO revealed that the company’s infrastructure is currently in a bad state and there is need for several changes to be effected to start that improvement. He said as it is now, GPL needs an injection of US$110 million to “fix the serious deficiencies” in the system.

That money, he said, will go towards having a redundancy plan in place. It will also be used to execute the reconfiguration and re-conducting of the power system in an effort to stabilize it.

He noted that GPL’s big priority right now will be to keep the lights on, pointing out that any problem with the distribution system, results in power outages.

Mr. Gordon said many of the systems need to be changed and updated and back-up systems must be in place. He said when maintenance work is being carried out, the back up system should be available to ensure customers do not lose power. He said the age and condition of the current distribution system have also contributed to the problems.

The new CEO who worked for decades in Jamaica’s utility services, said he has already indicated the reality of the situation to government and has offered his remedies.

Mr. Gordon told journalists last evening that last year GPL experienced 25 shutdowns and that’s a major cause for concern. He noted that in many countries one shut down in the lifetime of a system would be a major problem, so the issue must be addressed.

Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson, who was also at the event, welcomed the new CEO and said government will soon be considering his requests and plans.

For years, GPL has been dogged by bad service and blackouts almost weekly.

The company would have received financial support from this and the previous government, but its systems appear to show very little signs of improvement.

The new CEO intends to reverse that trend and build better trust and reations with the company’s customers.

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