The Guyana Power and Light, (GPL) has made a decision to remove 15 large businesses off of its grid during peak hours, and according to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, the decision will save at least 30,000 other customers from frequent power outages.

During a press conference on Thursday at his party’s headquarters, Mr. Jagdeo said businesses refused a GPL request to voluntarily leave the grid during peak hours, and as such a deicison was taken by the power company to disconnect them nightly during the peak hours.

“So, GPL has decided to take them off (the grid) because the alternative is, should we discomfort 15 or 20 businesses who are using large amounts of power, who can self-generate and getting subsidize power who are on the grid or most of the day and only has to come off in the peak, or should we discomfort 30,000 people who are small users. And we have opted to say you (businesses) have to come off because you are still getting a lot of benefits from the system,” Mr. Jagdeo told the press conference.

The Government claims that the GPL electricity grid has become overcrowded with a number of companies that previously generated their own electricity, turning to the GPL system.

“So, it made sense for a lot of people who were self-generating to turn off their generators who were generating in the past and come on to the GPL grid including the big users. So they have now flooded the grid because they are getting subsidized electricity from the grid, so that has pushed up the demand,” Mr. Jagdeo said.

The Vice President said while a solution is the sight, the current trend of blackouts worries him.

“We are trying because this (blackout) worries me too, I can understand people, I have a generator but I go around this country so I know how it feels,” the Vice President said.

The Power company is expected to add additional power to its system by mid- December to avert a holiday crisis.

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