The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) says during the last quarter of 2006 hundreds of van loads of illegal connections were dismantled but the power theft problem is continuing and in a changed strategy GPL fraud squads have “taken up residence in some communities”.
In a press release GPL said it disconnected van loads of illegally connected wires in areas such as the East Bank Demerara (EBD), Berbice and the West Coast Demerara. The company said it found that telephone cable continued to be the conduit of choice in all areas and the Sophia Fields ‘A’ and ‘B’ continued to rank at the top of the list.
The company said some Sophia residents seem more determined than ever to defy attempts to curb their theft of electricity. GPL said Sophia was one of the first areas to be electrified in 2005 under the Unserved Areas Electrifica- tion Programme but to date, only a small percentage of residents have applied for service and many concessions were made to accommodate residents with difficult financial circumstances.
The GPL said it also found instances where the company’s own distribution cable was rooted out and it has been losing earth wires that were installed to prevent power surges and the resultant damage, and to maintaining a stable flow of electricity to consumers’ homes and businesses.
The company said copper from inside transformers, whole spools of distribution cables and conductors both on high and low voltage distribution networks have been stolen. It said this type of vandalism has been plaguing the company’s operations for some time and is similar to that which had prompted Prime Minister Samuel Hinds to call a halt to the export of old/scrap metal last year.
The company said customers from as far as the East Bank Essequibo and Mahaica/Mahaicony have reported that men have visited their homes asking to see their meters and have cut away pieces of their service lines; the cables that take power from the pole to the building. The company has since advised consumers to safeguard their systems by verifying the documents that all GPL field operatives carry before granting them access to their premises.
GPL said it is evident that vandals steal electricity cable to sell to residents to be used for illegal connections. It said it finds this practice to be “doubly unacceptable” and has further intensified its campaign to rid the society of this menace. The company said it has revamped its strategies and its fraud squads have “taken up residence” in areas where the problem of illegal connections is persistent as the presence of live illegal wires not only retards the work of other utilities but wires that run on and underground pose a danger to workers, to residents and to animals.
The company said residents who have purchased electricity distribution from vandals may have been misled but “unauthorised connections is still theft of electricity.” The wires will be removed and the penalties will still apply; they will be charged and put before the court.
Other areas where this practice is prevalent include Bachelor’s Adventure, Bare Root and Enterprise however; plans for loss reduction operations have intensified this year.
At the same time GPL said its loss reduction squad has reported a noticeable drop in the amount of wires removed from Diamond, EBD and its environs.
The company warned that a lot is at stake in its loss reduction campaign including the possibility of reducing tariffs as early as next year.
