Region Two chairman slams power company over constant blackouts

Region Two Chairman Parmanand Persaud has expressed deep dissatisfaction with the poor and slow effort by the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) in restoring power on the Essequibo Coast.

Persaud, during an interview with Guyana Times International, said he is frustrated over the situation and called on GPL to get its act together.

Region Two on Saturday suffered a 12- hour blackout on Saturday less than two weeks ago after having to put up with a 48- hour power outage.

Since power was restored to the region after the two-day power outage, Region Two residents were greeted with frequent blackouts, but apart from Region Two, Georgetown and other areas on the coastland have been enduring the ‘fairy-lights’ ordeal.

On a visit to the GPL power station at Anna Regina on Saturday, Persaud said he was told by officers there that they are fixing the problem and all will be good before the end of Sunday.

Difficult to comprehend

But the regional chairman is finding the explanation difficult to comprehend, noting that he cannot believe that GPL is taking more than 12 hours to fix a simple problem.

According to Persaud, he was told by the officers that a power card was damaged resulting in the shutdown.

He said the card has to come from the Geogetown head office and would take five minutes to install.

But 18 hours after the blackout, GPL did not install the card, and this Persaud said speaks to the level of inefficiency of the power company in handling the plight of Region Two residents.

The regional chairman said he had received numerous calls from the business community inquiring from him about the blackout, noting that he had promised them that all will be well soon, based on the advice of the GPL staff at Anna Regina, but had to suffer the indignity of giving them false hope.

Hurting businesses

Meanwhile, the unstable power situation continues to hurt businesses on the Essequibo Coast. The power company last week in a statement had said that power supply is back to near normalcy. But up to Sunday, poultry farmers said they are being forced to sell “live” chicken since they cannot say whether there will be a daily power supply.

One poultry farmer, Jean Samaroo said she is losing on her chickens since she cannot pluck them due to frequent power outages.

Samaroo related that she earns more from plucked chicken but due to the unreliable power supply, plucking is a risk. Many offices on Wednesday were unable to function due to the black out.

In a statement last week, GPL said all remedial work on the 11kV busbar at the Anna Regina generating station had been completed and power supply has returned to a state of near normalcy.

According to the company, intermittent outages are, however, still being experienced as faults develop in its distribution network as a result of high winds.