Demerara suffers total power shutdown

Two weeks before world cup matches are to be staged here, the entire Demerara system suffered a power shutdown on Tuesday night which lasted for hours.

And in an invited comment, the head of the Local Organising Committee for the games voiced concern over the shutdown.

Apologising for the interruption yesterday, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Incorporated insisted that the system is ready for the World Cup games and is not short on generating capacity.

According to a press release from the power company, the system encountered a series of problems and at 10 pm, two Wartsila generators at the Kingston plant shut down. In quick order, other generators at the Wartsila station and the GPL station at Garden of Eden reacted, sparking a total shutdown.

GPL said power to the 50-hertz areas was restored at 11.30 pm, while a team of mechanical and electrical engineers worked to bring all generating sets back on stream. “By 03:00 hrs [Wednesday], every set was back on bars and power supply was fully restored to both the 50 and 60-Hertz areas. The last areas to be repowered were Cummingsburg and Charlestown.

The release said the team that corrected the problem said that last evening the Demerara system would have received a boost with two generating sets from Garden of Eden and Wartsila being brought back online after being overhauled. According to the company, power availability will climb to 86 megawatts.

The team reiterated that despite the shutdown, the system is not short on generating capacity, nor are there any defective machines. The generating sets were overhauled in the last three to six months as GPL prepared for the expected increase in power demand during the Cricket World Cup season.

GPL said network engineers have also suspended all routine maintenance activities, which usually interrupt power supply in specific areas, until the last ball is bowled and the World Cup winner declared. “This is to allow customers to see the matches without undue interruption,” the release said.

According to Network Operations Manager Godfrey Bellamy, the maintenance teams will concentrate on emergency repairs. “They have a mandate to isolate problem areas carefully during this period, and to complete all works in the shortest possible time,” he said.

In a statement on Tuesday prior to the shutdown, the company said it had done everything in its power, including installing voltage regulators along the East Coast and East Bank corridors to upgrade the power quality, to deliver “a superlative supply of power to the Provi-dence Stadium” and to allow customers to see the Cricket World Cup matches without interruption.

The company said power distribution systems in these areas have undergone major upgrading and a mobile Caterpillar set has been installed at the stadium as a stand-by power facility.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Local Organis-ing Committee for the Cricket World Cup in Guyana Karan Singh said the only persons at the Providence Stadium during Tuesday night’s shutdown would have been the security guards and some of his staff. He said he has not received any first-hand information about any incidents at the stadium as a result of the shutdown, but indicated that it was a concern given that the games are so close.

He said the stadium has three sources of power available to it: two standby generators and the GPL grid. But he said the mechanism to automatically switch over to standby power in the event of an outage was disabled for safety reasons.