(KINGSTON) Following a spate of recent blackouts, the Guyana Power and Light Company Inc. has given assurances that systems are being put in place to avoid a reoccurrence.
This was stated by GPL’s CEO (a.g.), Mr. Renford Homer, during a briefing with the media this afternoon. Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson and Minister within the Ministry, Annette Ferguson, were also present for the briefing.
During the briefing, Mr. Homer explained that the cause of today’s interruptions was a ripple effect from a power failure on Sunday, February 12. The power failure was as a result of an entanglement between the 13.8kW and 69kV transmission lines at the junction of Lamaha Avenue and Vlissingen Road.
This contact led to a shutdown, a mechanism the system employs to protect itself, and caused power interruption in a number of areas, including Queenstown, Prashad Nagar, Kitty, and Subryanville.
“What we had today were ripple effects; the F9 feeder suffered great shock and this led to another disturbance this morning (February 14). We strongly believe today’s disturbance is linked to the disturbance on Sunday,” Homer explained.
As a result, he said, GPL began identifying additional defects that could lead to other interruptions and found further entanglements which brought the generation system down. The identification process involved manual inspection of the lines, which took considerable time. These issues were subsequently rectified through clearage of entanglements, he added.
“We believe we have done a comprehensive check and we don’t believe we’ll experience other issues related to this particular issue,” Mr. Homer said. He further noted that the system is an old one and would require an upgrade. He said initiatives are in place to not only identify faults along the lines but to also isolate these faults so that they would not extend along the line.
Meanwhile, Minister Patterson explained that efforts are being made to have alternative lines to supply power in instances where the main line has experienced a problem.
