President Bharrat Jagdeo says he remains concerned about the ongoing electricity woes and hopes the problems can be resolved by May.

According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) release the president said he had asked Prime Minister Samuel Hinds to make the issue a priority on his agenda. “They have had some slight improvements. Hopefully, by (this) week, the situation could return to some level of normalcy and I have already asked the chairman of the (GPL) Board to make plans to probably bring in some additional sets for the Christmas period,” he said.

Jagdeo also said he was hopeful that by May all the electricity problems would be resolved. Government has already paid for a new power plant that should generate about 20 megawatts of power at Kingston. “That should substantially improve the power situation and hopefully, by that time, the Skeldon factory would be working…we’d be supplying the grid from bagasse…and also with the 10 megawatts of heavy fuel oil unit on standby…we should have adequate power in the system,” he added. Jagdeo said too he was concerned that one of the two Wartsila units put in place at Skeldon has developed problems so quickly.  It is currently undergoing repairs.

According to GINA GPL officials recently said the power demand in the country is more than it can supply.