This emotional rollercoaster has to stop

Dear Editor,
Berbicians experienced one of the most horrible weekends last weekend after we were told that we would be having blackout for the entire Saturday and Sunday.
The reason for such a dastard act towards customers of the Guyana Power & Light Inc (GPL) on a weekend really doesn’t matter at this point because no reason would be good enough for a company who strives to “power the future” to shut down operations in the entire Berbice area on Saturday and Sunday of any week! None!
Yet we did endure such a blackout session and we were informed that there would be more miserable weekends in the future even as GPL has provided Berbicians with 11 blackouts for the past 12 days in Berbice.
What a shame. Sometimes I wonder if the business of GPL is to give blackouts rather than give electricity.
Just imagine, the Skeldon Power Plant is in full operation and blackouts are still rampant in not just Berbice, but the entire length and breadth of Guyana — even till down to Lethem!
Lethem, a town situated just metres from a rich country like Brazil, is having electricity problems. This is happening when the authorities in Guyana should’ve seen to it that Lethem is connected to the power grid which serves Bom Fin and the Northern Brazilian State of Roraima.
But the situation in poor Lethem, too, is one that is so disgraceful. But let us get back to the situation closer to the coastland. Over the past couple of months — years — we in Guyana have been promised over and over a more reliable supply of electricity.
The newspaper headlines tell it all — some big announcement in the form of a report — that a problem is being experienced by the power company, but the situation will get better in a given time frame.
Citizens then look forward to that time frame period being met, only to be disappointed when the time comes and nothing changes, blackouts continue, or get worse, and the cycle goes round and round. Take for instance the following are just some reports in the newspapers: 26-01-08 ‘Berbice Blackouts shorter but still prevalent- power company unable to use full supply, Guysuco official says’. That report promised better power supply to Berbicians when the 69-KV Transmission line from the #53 Station to the Skeldon Factory has been put in place.
16-11-07 ‘Power supply should stabilize in 48 hours- Luncheon’.
Generation shortfalls due to mechanical failures in Georgetown and Berbice were to have been “stabilized” in two days time.
30-11-07 ‘Series of Blackouts for Christmas’. The company reported that owing to rising fuel prices and deteriorating finances, the blackouts would be increased. Guyanese were promised better electricity as soon as GPL “clears its liabilities” and the Skeldon Sugar Factory goes in operation. 23-12-07 ‘Berbice Blackout woes end’. That report painted a ‘rosy’ picture of the power situation in Berbice and lauded the government efforts for “delivering on its promise to Berbicians in promising them a bright Christmas”.
21-10-08 ‘Power Company working to urgently relieve situation’. Mechanical failures at the Canefield and Onverwagt Power Stations (strangely at the same time), caused over 100 hours of power blackouts over a period of one week in East and West Berbice .
More promises flowed in that the company is planning to spend U.S. $1.4M at the Canefield Power Station “to increase its capacity to 10 megawatts”.
Obviously, there hasn’t been any upgrade at all at Canefield from then to now, hence the blackouts we have been facing to date in Berbice.
27-10-08 ‘Jagdeo Hopes by May Power Problem Solved’. That was last October when the President of this country was promising Guyanese a better supply (20 megawatts) of electricity which we should have been receiving since last month (May). That turned out to be some promise.
What ever happened to the 10 megawatt boost from Miami GPL received during the 2007 Christmas season? I guess those machines have developed faults over the 2 year period.  11-06-08 ‘GPL signs U.S.$31M deal with the government’.
A descriptive article with  the outline of numerous plans which the company would have been setting into motion to better the situation of their delivery of electricity services to Guyanese.
Reducing the use of diesel and converting many of their sets within their fleet to Heavy Fuel Oil; the new  Kingston Power grid; refurbishing generating sets at Canefield; establishing a high powered  transmission line on the Corentyne, etc. all which should have bettered the power situation in Guyana. The situation has not been bettered.
Mr. Editor, as you can see, I have been building a case on GPL using the aforementioned information for all Guyanese to see how they’ve been hoodwinked and duped by this company and to a lesser extent this government. It’s all promises, promises, and promises! Guyanese were promised over and over in no uncertain terms that the Skeldon Sugar Factory would be the answer — the remedy — to their power woes.
Berbice would even have so much electricity that we’d be selling power to the national grid, and maybe, just maybe Guyana would be blackout free finally.
We are being told over and over how much money is being invested into GPL but the company seems not to be making any headway in the delivery of uninterrupted electricity at a reliable cost to the nation.
We are just tired of hearing about the sad stories that the power company has to tell us —about this machine failing and that machine malfunctioning and generation shortfall here and there — we don’t want to hear it! All we want is a better and reliable supply of electricity. That’s all.
We are also tired of hearing promise after promise about better times to come when blackouts would be no more. If the Skeldon Factory is up and running and yet Berbicians are having frequent power outages every single day, then why should a new power station in Kingston make any dent at all in the power crises in Guyana?
Shame on GPL for giving two consecutive days of blackouts to Berbicians last Saturday and Sunday. No explanation, as usual, was given except for a report on a newscast.
This being Berbice, I guess GPL didn’t see fit to explain the reason why we had to suffer such fates last weekend and why whatever works they were carrying out could not wait until the weekend was over.
Stop telling the population that things are bad but things could and would be better in a such and such time. This emotional rollercoaster has got to stop.
We understood the incapability during the period of dictatorship in Guyana , but now—now when we are in a self- professed democracy—over fifteen years in the making, with a government boasting about doing so much to make the lives of Guyanese better and making a modern Guyana for all. Apparently, they have not done enough to rid Guyanese of blackouts. And I’m almost sure they never will.
Leon Jameson Suseran