Blackout woes hit Bartica

Residents of Bartica have been without power since Tuesday, owing to mechanical problems affecting one of the community’s Caterpillar Units.
A press release from the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) said the unit was taken offline on Wednesday, for investigations and to have repairs done.

It promised that the generator would have been online by 6pm on Wednesday.

However, residents of the community complained that from Tuesday morning straight to Thursday night there was no power in the district and many farmers and shopkeepers resorted to generators which were costly to operate.

A market vendor of Bartica, who provided her name as Angela, said that her business suffered losses because a large amount of poultry and seafood products had to be disposed after not being frozen.

GPL explained in the press release that there was a rapid increase in demand for electricity in Bartica and that last year a third generating unit was added to supplement the two existing units.

Prior to the occurrences of Tuesday, the release said, sections of the community were experiencing periodic power outages owing to technical difficulties with two units. As a result, the station was not able to satisfy total power demand.

The release said repairs were ongoing on the units and one of them should be back in operation by tomorrow.

The power company said that two operating units are sufficient to satisfy total demand at Bartica and the third will be restored shortly and will be kept on standby.