Georgetown: The recent spate of blackouts that residents, particularly on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara have been experiencing is as a result of network related problems, according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Incorporated, Bharrat Dindyal.
He explained that the two transmission lines leading from Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara to Sophia, Georgetown were designed in the 1970s and as such, are not equipped to withstand the elevated level of lightning activity seen in recent weeks.
Recognising this problem, the power company has already imported surge protecting equipment, and installation is set to commence shortly.
The new transmission lines that are now being installed on the other hand are equipped with continuous lightning protection.
Dindyal explained that on the East Coast, the circuit that has been serving consumers from Success to Coldingen was overloaded during the airing of the recently concluded Caribbean Premier League (CPL) tournament.
Actions have since been taken to offload that circuit and as a temporary solution, another circuit has been extended to take off some of the load. The operationalisation of the new sub-station at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara will offer a more permanent solution to this problem.
“Consumers from Bel Air to Mahaica should see an improvement to their service with the operation of this new substation,” the CEO said.
The Good Hope substation is expected to go into commercial operation later this month. It is only one component of the company’s multimillion dollar Infrastructure Development Project, which is a collaborative effort among the Government of Guyana, GPL and the People’s Republic of China through a concessionary loan of US$38.96M from the China Export – Import Bank (Eximbank).
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