Following multiple power outages that affected hundreds of thousands served by its Demerara and Berbice grids on Thursday, the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) yesterday said “unknown faults” from its West Bank distribution system were to blame. GPL said there were shutdowns at 4.37pm, 5.46pm, and 8.25pm and the company took the decision during the last shutdown to isolate the West Bank areas from La Retraite to La Grange. This was done in an effort to safeguard the Demerara and Berbice grids and determine the reason for the power failure, the company said in a statement.
As a result, customers residing in and between this block were without electricity from late Thursday afternoon until just after midday yesterday.
GPL said its teams conducted a thorough investigation of distribution lines and line hardware from La Retraite to La Grange in an effort to find the primary fault/s that contributed to Thursday’s system disturbance.
“Investigations of the distribution lines from La Retraite to La Grange revealed no significant defects which could have resulted in yesterday’s disturbance,” it, however, reported afterward. The company added that it would therefore further examine the distribution system linking the communities to its Vreed-en-Hoop substation.
