The Guyana Power and Light says plans are currently underway to further transform the country’s electricity sector while improving the quality and reliability of the service that consumers receive.
Speaking with Guyana Times International during an exclusive interview, GPL Chief Executive Officer Bharat Dindyal announced that the company would further benefit from the US$40 million Chinese grant made available for the expansion, maintenance, and transmission upgrade of its service this year.
He said work under this programme is expected to start during the second half of the year, and will see the expansion of GPL’s transmission services from East Demerara to West Demerara and West Berbice. He said that seven new substations are also expected to be constructed and become operational by this year’s end, and these will improve the overall generation and distribution of electricity to consumers in the surrounding communities.
The company is also expected to continue the technical maintenance of its feeders, transmission lines, converters and other equipment. However, Dindyal said that this upgrade and technical work will not cause frequent power outages and load shedding, as was the case in the past.
“When we actually decide to do maintenance and technical upgrade works, they will now be done in a more comprehensive and structured manner, as we plan to employ all our combined resources to get more work done during an eight-hour period,” Dindyal stressed. In the past, planned maintenance work would be executed at various parts of the country, but little was achieved and customers were left without power for very long periods. Dindyal said that the power outages this time around would be less frequent and shorter.
Increased demand
Meanwhile, with rapid development taking place and overall economic growth increasing each year, a major challenge for the power company is “increased demand for electricity, which will put a strain on its equipment and systems maintenance”. When questioned on this issue, the CEO admitted that, over the past few years, there has been a significant demand for electricity. He noted that as growth and development continues to take place, the company is forced to rise to the challenges and simply meet new demand with supply without any complaints.
Dindyal said that apart from the multi-million-dollar investment made in constructing the Kingston power plant in 2009, which offers an additional 27.7MW of electricity, the company was looking at an additional 15.6MW, especially as the hydro-power plant is expected to come on stream at least by 2015.
“This should not stop us from expanding our generation and distribution, because we have to meet the growing needs for electricity, and each day more housing settlements, schemes and new business ventures are being established, and the need is there for us to supply power. GPL must meet this demand head on,” Dindyal disclosed.
