GPL explains widespread blackout

Last Updated on Monday, 13 April 2015, 20:32 by GxMedia

The Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) Monday afternoon explained the cause of a major shutdown Sunday night that affected the city and several villages in Demerara and Berbice.

The com-pany said that at approximately 8:18 Monday night,  a canter while en route east along the railway embankment crashed and broke a pole at Mon Repos supporting a primary 69 kv transmission line linking the Demerara and Berbice systems resulting in a Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) shutdown.

The affected transmission line was isolated and efforts to restore power commenced around 20:45 hrs. However due to a defective breaker, two further shutdowns were experienced during attempts of power restoration.

Thereafter, all areas apart from communities along the East Coast Demerara to sections of Seafield, WCB were repowered by midnight (excluding Enmore to Victoria who were repowered at 1:16 AM).

In the County of Berbice, power restoration commenced around 10PM with generation being supplied from the Canefield Power Plant, Skeldon and Onverwagt facilities.

Temporary remedial works to restore the broken pole lasted until 5:30 Monday morning after which all remaining affected consumers in Demerara and Berbice were fully repowered.

It should be noted that this shutdown follows one which occurred over a month ago in central Georgetown. Reckless use of the roadways has caused numerous structural damages to GPL’s property and major inconveniences to our valued customers. We plead yet again with all road users to exhibit due caution on the roadways. 

GPL will be replacing the temporary infrastructure at Mon Repos shortly which will require an outage during the day. The schedule for this outage will be communicated to the public as the schedule is currently being determined.

GPL extends sincerest appreciation to the dedicated staff and contractors who worked tirelessly to restore electricity to all affected customers and apologizes for the inconvenience caused.

Essequibo

The No#1 Wartsila Unit and Caterpillar Genset at Anna Regina experienced some minor mechanical issues over this past weekend resulting in brief intermittent outages at Anna Regina. The issues were identified and corrected on the Caterpillar set this morning which will reduce any further interruptions in the supply of electricity. A troubleshooting exercise was performed on the Wartsila Unit with further work required during the week.