Berbice : The intermittent interruption of electricity across Berbice since Good Friday is expected to be addressed within the next five days, according to the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) Regional Manager Ayube Bacchus.
Bacchus explained that the issues are merely technical and would be overcome in the coming days to restore normalcy to the networks in Regions Five and Six. “We’re having some difficulties both from a feeder distribution standpoint and also contributing is our power plant: one of our engines has been giving us some technical problems … it is diagnosed and we know what is wrong, but we need time to fix it,” Bacchus said.
The issue stemmed from the Number Three Unit at the Canefield Generation Plant. According to Bacchus, this unit has been experiencing “isolated cases of trips” and technicians are working to remedy the situation.
“In another four or five days time, the situation would be regularised and the power restored as what it used to be before… we apologise to our consumers and we ask for them to bear with us for another couple of days, as we fix these technical problems that are popping up… I am confident that things will be restored very shortly.”
Meanwhile, the power company is also in the process of re-commissioning the Number Four Unit which was pulled out of operation in 2010 for an overhaul. The unit is under observation after technicians reintroduced it into the network. There is also ongoing conversion to heavy fuel oil, which is cheaper than the regular diesel.
The Canefield Generation Plant has the capacity of 10 megawatts, with five megawatts each coming from the number three and number four units, backed up by three Caterpillar units.
The generation load is being carried by the defaulting Number Three Unit.
Currently, the peak period for Regions Five and Six is between 6pm to 10pm, however, the demand has increased from around 16 megawatts to 17.3 megawatts as the rice milling season is underway. At this point, there is enough power to serve the demand, with Onverwagt providing 4.6 megawatts; Skeldon, six megawatts; and Canefield, around 13.5 megawatts. Bacchus noted that the supply is more than the demand, and niggles in the system will be rectified.
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