Latest update August 19th, 2026 10:39 AM
Damaged Demerara River submarine cable…GPL mulls $160M repair works to same Chinese company that laid it
Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) could end up spending up to $160M to repair the damaged submarine cable which links West Demerara to the city.
Government officials indicated this week that a proposal is currently before the Board of Directors of the state-owned power company for the contract to be handled by China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC).
CMC is the same Chinese company which had installed the cable in the first place.
The cable was part of a US$40M-plus project to build seven sub-stations and new transmission lines along the coast. The submarine cables included built-in fibre optics to create a total grid in Berbice and Demerara, and were laid across the two rivers.
However, in July the Demerara River cable was badly damaged by a vessel, leaving the East Demerara and Berbice area without the extra power that is being produced by the 26 megawatts new Wartsila power plant at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Bank Demerara.
There has been an increase in outages in especially the East Bank of Demerara areas.
According to GPL officials, there have been concerns about the work of CMC had carried out with regards to the laying of the cable.
“It is felt that the cable should have been buried deeper in the river. The fact that the cable was damaged is evidence that attention was not paid to the river traffic and the many vessels that traverse the area,” a senior GPL official said Friday.
It could take up to two months to repair the cable and have it operational again. The cable and other parts have to be shipped in, in all likelihood from China.
“We will be insisting that the armored cable be sleeved (another protection) to ensure what happened here does not occur again.”
GPL has said very little of the cable damage, but there have been questions about the actual installation and the kind of supervision that went into it. The monies that were spent were from a Chinese loan.
In the meantime, it is unlikely that the current, sporadic outages will go away anytime soon.
Residents have been complaining bitterly about an increasing spate of blackouts, in especially places like Eccles and Republic Park, East Bank Demerara.
A key report, dated November 2014, was submitted to GPL on that project by Caribbean Engineering and Management Consultants, Inc. (CEMCO), a local firm that had partnered with SMP Engineering, a Canadian outfit, to supervise the project.
The report had raised questions about the installation of the submarine cable. The consultants urged that it be re-examined.
The report pointed out that it is possible that the life of the cable may have been compromised during installation due to the methods employed and the possible dragging of the cables by fuel boats that were traversing the Demerara River.
As an alternative to a second submarine cable, GPL may have to consider an overhead transmission line at a suitable point along the Demerara River, the consultants had urged.
The report had blistered the Chinese contractor and noted that the pre-qualification or post-qualification assessments were either not performed or inadequately performed during the tender and selection phase of the project.
The evidence was clear that CMC was ill-prepared for what it takes to run a project of this magnitude, the report had said.
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So after the Chinese messed up the laying of the submarine cable and found to be ‘ill prepared for what it takes to run a project of this magnitude’ they will go back to the Chinese to repair the damaged cable .. really … there must be something wrong with the mentality of those in charge .. this is the height of stupidity ,, no wonder the country is not making progress.