An operational error at the Wartsila plant at Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara was the cause of bouts of blackout in the city and other parts of Demerara on Sunday.
According to a press release issued by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc yesterday, the error, which occurred at 8:50 am, resulted in damage to a 15Kv circuit breaker and a total shutdown of the Demerara Interconnected System. “Wartsila had been asked to investigate the incident and to take steps to prevent a reoccurrence,” the release said.
The company’s efforts to restart the system promptly encountered problems, but eventually central Georgetown was repowered at around 9:30 am. The release continued that consumers from Coldingen to Bygeval, regained power after midday.
On Sunday evening also, consumers between Bel Air and Success experienced power outage “for the peak as the Wartsila machine involved in the incident was returned to service after 9 pm.”
Some damage was also done to one of the plant’s frequency converters during the shutdown, and this, the release said, will affect the company’s ability to fully utilize the 50Hz output of the Kingston plant. “Every effort is being directed at returning this unit to service earliest,” it said.
Consumers in Kitty, Alberttown and Queenstown also experienced a power outage on Sunday around 4 pm, as a result of a Fire Tender hitting and breaking a primary pole at Lamaha and Albert streets. As a result, a number of faults on the circuit, according to the release, had to be found and corrected over a period of four hours. As such, Alberttown consumers were repowered at 5.56 am yesterday.
GPL is thanking all customers for their patience, as the company continues to work to improve its services.
