Blackouts continue in Demerara

Blackouts continue to plague the Demerara electricity system and the Guyana Power and Light bis still to provide a detailed explanation for the continuing problems.

On Saturday and yesterday there were off and on power cuts which residents have lamented is causing damage to their utilities. This morning the blackouts continued.

On Saturday, GPL Public Relations Officer Shevionne Sears-Murray said that there was a trip in the power system while engineers were undertaking maintenance works in the city.  That doesn’t explain what transpired yesterday and again today.

These problems are a continuation of those over the Easter weekend and earlier. GPL on April 23 said that over the Easter weekend there were four complete shutdowns in the Demerara System.

GPL stated that technical problems at the Kingston power station caused the shutdowns at 9:58hrs, 11:04hrs and 12:02hrs on Easter Sunday. GPL said its engineers worked to rectify the problems and the last affected community was re-energised at 12.58hrs.

GPL did not elaborate on what these technical problems were. Critics continue to argue that despite assurances, GPL is nowhere near to getting on top of the problems plaguing the power company. It is just exiting from a huge Chinese loan meant to improve transmission and distribution in the Demerara system.

In addition to the three shutdowns on Easter Sunday, GPL had said on April 23 that on April 22 at 4.45 am, a vehicle hit and broke a primary pole on Homestretch Avenue, causing a shutdown in the Demerara Interconnected System.

GPL said its teams replaced the pole and hardware and the affected communities were repowered by 05.46hrs.

GPL added that there were numerous localized outages as a result of kites becoming entangled in the network.

The statement on April 23, three days after the shutdowns, did little to answer why the Easter weekend was also plagued by constant low voltage and blackouts on the East Coast Demerara, in Georgetown and on the East Bank.

The opposition has pilloried the government over the ongoing problems at GPL despite the large amounts of money being spent.