Submarine cable fault causes blackout in several Berbice, Georgetown, East Bank Demerara areas

Last Updated on Monday, 3 June 2019, 23:17 by Writer

The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) said numerous areas in Berbice, Georgetown and East Bank Demerara would Monday night have no electricity due to a fault along sections of its submarine cable that links the Vreed-en-Hoop to Kingston power stations.

“On Sunday night, June 2, the submarine cable which links our Kingston and Vreed-en-Hoop Stations developed a suspected fault along sections located approximately 0.5 km offshore from our Kingston operations. While investigations and consequent remedial work are being effected, the cable will remain de-energized,” GPL said in a statement.

The power company said its Vreed-en-Hoop operation supplies an average of 14 megawatts of electricity to its Kingston operation for further utilization within the eastern half of the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).

That, GPL said, was compounded by the fact that two of its generators at the Kingston Power Station are not in operation. “In the absence of the submarine cable, our Company is unable to transfer this capacity to the eastern half of the DBIS. Additionally, two generating sets at our Kingston Power Plant are unavailable due to maintenance requirements.”

As a result of this, a load shedding exercise is being temporarily instituted Monday evening, from 18:00 hrs to 23:00hrs and will affect the following customers.

BERBICE
Auchlyne to # 53
Bygeval to Seafield

GEORGETOWN
Festival City, North Ruimveldt, South Ruimveld Park and Gardens, Lamaha Springs, Stevedore, Tucville, GuyHoc Park, Lamaha Park, PP QQ Scheme, Roxanne Burnham Gardens & GuyHoc Gardens.

EAST BANK DEMERARA
Garden of Eden to Soesdyke Junction
Soesdyke Junction to Yarrowkabra on the Linden Highway

The management of GPL Inc. has convened a team comprising of officials from GPL, deep water divers and China Machinery Corporation (CMC) to urgently assess the situation. “Our Company remains cognizant of the inconveniences associated with this load shedding exercise and will endeavour to minimize the duration. Additionally, we will continue to provide updates as they become available.