Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 11, 2009 News
As consumers raise questions over continued, intermittent blackout, the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) has assured that tests are still ongoing but the situation should be alleviated by next week.
GPL officials, in response to the blackouts which continue to plague residents, especially on the East Bank Demerara and parts of Georgetown, asked yesterday that consumers just bear a few more days.
“We have to carry out some mandatory tests and monitoring. Our three new engines are working fine. But it is important that some more checks and monitoring be continued. We expect that by next week, the outages which are only happening for short periods will ease considerably,” a public relations official said.
Consumers have been calling in complaining that the blackout situation, while it has decreased in duration, is still prevalent.
Yesterday, the New Diamond Housing Scheme reported outages for the greater part of the day while Grove said that they had power outages twice.
GPL official noted that there is continued line maintenance which may leave some areas without power. However, the actual generation from the three new engines, which adds an extra 20 megawatts to the system, is going smoothly.
Last Thursday, GPL commenced the first stage of commissioning at its new Kingston Power Plant
During a tour of the facility, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPL, Bharrat Dindyal told reporters that generation-related problems will now be a thing of the past as the power station is up and running.
GPL has also completed the 69 KV interconnection of the Kingston Plant to Sophia, which means that the transmission lines along the embankment are running at 69,000 volts.
The 69 KV substation on the southern side of the facility was also commissioned.
According to Dindyal, the engines will undergo a ‘running-in programme’ for seven hours after which a dry run of the efficiency test will be conducted. This will see all the machines running on full load for eight hours, where the fuel consumption will be monitored.
The CEO explained that the grid would benefit from about 4 megawatts of power which will be produced from the plant. It was also noted that the commercial operations of the plant would commence this week if all the tests are successfully completed.
Meanwhile, Dindyal had told media operatives that GPL would still have to conduct line maintenance as part of preparations for the Christmas season. This essentially means that some areas will experience short periods of blackout.
“As you know, the weather gets bad in late December so we have to ensure that we finish maintenance, we finish trimming trees, replace poles and prepare the network as best as we could for Christmas…so that aspect of the outages will still happen.”
Approximately 20 persons have already been trained to man the US$30 million state-of-the-art 20 MW Kingston Power Station.
It was financed under the Petro-Caribe fund which was initiated by Venezuela sometime back.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
Mar 28, 2024
Minister Ramson challenge athletes to better last year’s performance By Rawle Toney Kaieteur Sports – Guyana’s 23-member contingent for the CARIFTA Games in Grenada is set to depart the...B.V. Police Station Kaieteur News – The Beterverwagting Police Station, East Coast Demerara (ECD) will be reconstructed... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – In the face of escalating global environmental challenges, water scarcity and... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]