In response to two recent power outages that plunged sections of the country into darkness, Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Deodat Indar is assuring that emergency teams are on standby to deal with any power issue, even as the Government works to improve the country’s electrical grid.

The Public Utilities and Aviation Ministry together with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) has commissioned in excess of 30 emergency teams throughout the country to address any emergency that may arise.

In an interview with reporters today, Minister Indar said the teams are working around the clock.

He said the realty is that there are weaknesses in the current electrical system that the Government is working to address.

 “What happen is that the current system that was designed, there are weaknesses in it. It is a linear system; there is no ring system right now. We are now building it out. So, when you have power being disrupted at one point, it doesn’t move anywhere. So, what happens, it shuts down and that shut down cascades and bring down the entire system,” Minister Indar explained.

Indar said that was the situation on Tuesday, December 9, when customers in Demerara and Berbice experienced an interruption in electricity supply due to a short circuit at the 69kV Transformer at the Kingston Substation.

An investigation revealed that a “damaged cable” resulted in the disruption. As a precautionary measure, the damaged cable was isolated to facilitate the safe restoration of power.

Similarly on Wednesday, the 69KV line linking Edinburgh and Vreed-en-Hoop Substations tripped while transmitting approximately 15 megawatts (MW) of power. According to GPL, the sudden loss of generation caused a cascading effect across the grid, resulting in service disruption to customers in Demerara and Berbice.

Minister Indar said in addition to the deficiencies in the system, disruption of service has also been as a result of the operation of heavy-duty equipment.

“We put 30 teams out in various parts of the country to deal with any kind of issue that may arise. But accidents do happen. Trucks do drive into the utility poles. Somebody with a drag line always next to the utility pole, somebody with a truck with pouring concrete over the utility, and so you have all of these things that are happening in addition to some of the inherent structural deficiencies within the power plants,” he said.

GPL, in a statement on Wednesday, said recently, it has seen an uptick of accidents where the reckless operation of trucks, cars and other motor vehicles resulted in the disruption of service to customers, when they come into contact with GPL’s network.

It is therefore urging all road users and equipment operators and contractors to be conscious of the dangers of operating near GPL infrastructure and the resultant loss of service to customers.

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