The city and several communities on the outskirts were yesterday afternoon hit by blackout and the electricity for most areas was not fully restored until almost four hours later.
Up to press time last evening there was no word from the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) as to the reason behind the power outage which followed a similar outage on Friday night. The electricity supply was restored later that night but went off again around 3:30 pm yesterday.
GPL Chief Executive Officer Bharrat Dindyal was quoted in a section of the media on Friday night as saying that the power outage was as a result of a local internet provider running illegal fibre optic cables below GPL lines in Parade and Cowan streets, Kingston. He reportedly said that one of the cables became loose and made contact with the GPL lines, causing a huge explosion.
Efforts to make contact with Dindyal yesterday on Friday’s incident as well as the subsequent power outages were futile.
GPL PRO Shevion Sears-Murray when contacted via telephone said that she was checking to see what the problem was. When contacted later she said power had been restored. But when told that the Robb Street area where Stabroek News is located was still without electricity she said she would make more checks.
When asked as to the reason for the outage, she said the technicians were still working and as such she was unable to get that information. She said contact should be made with her later. However, when this newspaper made efforts around 7 pm, there was no answer.
Stabroek News spoke to residents living in various communities between Plaisance, East Coast Demerara and Eccles, East Bank Demerara and from all indications the power went off at the same time. On Friday night, the outage engulfed the East Bank Demerara beyond Friendship.
A resident of Plaisance said that the electricity went off around 3:30 pm and came back on around six. Persons in sections of Campbellville and South Ruimveldt said that the lights went off twice, before finally being stored around 7 pm.
The electricity in Eccles and sections of the city came back around 7 pm.
Some persons took to the social media site Facebook to vent their frustration at the blackouts.
