West Dem GPL sub-stations now in operation

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, GPL Chairman Winston Brassington and CEO Bharat Dindyal at the Edinburgh sub-station where they got a closer look at the operating systems

Residents in the West Demerara region will now experience an improvement in their electricity supply with the operationalising of two new sub-stations built by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc, with funds from government and a Chinese loan valued at US$42 million from the Import and Export Bank.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, along with GPL Chief Executive Officer Bharat Dindyal, GPL Chairman Winston Brassington, and other officials visited the company’s newest sub-stations at Vreed-en-Hoop and Edinburgh, West Coast Demerara.   On his visit to the stations, Prime Minister Hinds stated that the number of consumers was growing and the systems were being overloaded; hence, the project was embarked upon.
“To meet the need in the West Demerara and to stabilise the power supply in the West Demerara, we have put them into operation over the past couple of days and we will keep them in operation,” he said.
PM Hinds emphasised that the new sub-stations cater for the rapid growth in demand on the West Coast. He explained that this growth resulted in the feeders becoming overloaded. The new arrangement has also released West Demerara from its heavy dependence on a single 13.8kV circuit in the Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara. GPL now has the ability to restore power rapidly to the West Coast if there is an incident that causes a power outage.
It was pointed out that a period of testing was completed by GPL prior to the systems being functional.  While there is further fine-tuning to be done on the new feeders, particularly to balance the load, this would be done in 2013. PM Hinds noted that the upgrade programme has another 12 months and involves the installation of seven sub-stations.

Prime Minister Hinds got acquainted with the computerised control systems at both the Vreed-en-Hoop and Edinburgh sub-stations

Dindyal outlined that residents from La Retraite to Free and Easy, West Bank Demerara are being powered by the Garden of Eden station; those from La Retraite to Versailles are being powered by the Versailles power station, those from Vreed-en-Hoop to Windsor Forest by the new Vreed-en-Hoop sub-station, and those from Windsor Forest to Roden Rust by the new Edinburgh sub-station.

Vastly improved
He said the situation now has vastly improved, recalling that prior to the upgrade, it was said  that consumers in the West Demerara region were dependent upon the link at Garden of Eden and whenever there was a problem between Crane and Garden of Eden, the entire West Demerara was affected. Dindyal posited that with the new system, power will be stabilised in West Demerara. Apart from the Vreed-en-Hoop and Edinburgh sub-stations, other stations are being installed at Golden Grove on the East Bank, in Georgetown, and at New Sophia, Good Hope and Columbia on the East Coast.
GPL will also be able to send power to Parika and Skeldon. While reliability and stability of the systems are being enhanced, focus is also being placed on ensuring the availability of an integrated 69kV system from Berbice to Essequibo.