Power supply should stabilize in 48 hours – Luncheon

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon announced yesterday that consistent electricity supply would return in a day or two.

He said that Cabinet had been critical of the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) in the recent spate of power outages and related that the company had promised that power would be back on a consistent basis in 24 to 48 hours.

Speaking at his post-Cabinet press briefing, Dr Luncheon said Cabinet noted the “fairly acute deterioration” in power supply by GPL to its customers in the main areas of operation and the resulting power outages.

“Cabinet was provided with information about shortfalls in power generation related to both systems failures and unmet power generated projections in the Berbice grid,” Dr Luncheon said.

He said Cabinet was advised that the outages in the Demerara system were related to systems failure at the Garden of Eden complex. “Cabinet was critical of the developments and called on the management of GPL to take all necessary steps to restore normalcy in power supply to customers as soon as possible,” the HPS said. He said that in Cabinet’s exchanges with the company, it was told that the blackouts had nothing to do with fuel shortages.

Recent efforts to reach the company for a comment on the spate of blackouts proved futile.

However, a press release issued on Monday said a piece of equipment at the Garden of Eden power station, East Bank Demerara had malfunctioned on Monday, resulting in a shutdown of the 50 and 60 Hertz Wartsila stations and the Sophia converters.

The failed component was scheduled to be replaced on Tuesday, but Stabroek News was unable to ascertain from GPL whether this had been done.

The power company had apologized for the intermittent power outages customers in Demerara and Berbice have been experiencing and blamed this situation on systemic and network problems.

The release said power in Berbice should have been back to full capacity by Wednesday last.