Damaged submarine cable bites deep…GPL forced to cut power as two Berbice engines go down

Sep 27, 2016 News

Generation woes of the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) are continuing to affect citizens across the

GPL Chairman,
Robert Badal

Demerara and Berbice areas.
Weeks after a submarine power cable across the Demerara River went down, leaving the power company on the edge, two more engines have now added to the troubles.
According to GPL last evening, it was forced to cut power to East Demerara residents during the peak period due to the unexpected unavailability of two units which generates approximately six megawatts.
GPL explained that the units- No. 3 Mirrlees at Canefield and the No. 7 GM at Onverwagt developed mechanical and control problems during the day.
The problems forced GPL to cut power for several houses between Good Hope to Lusignan; Mon Repos to Success, East Coast Demerara and Canefield to Auchlyne, Berbice.
GPL said that the No. 3 is expected to be back in service today while technicians are attempting to identify and resolve the fault of the unit at Onverwagt.
The problems with two engines would highlight how shaky GPL is at the moment when it comes to generation at power.
The Chinese-built submarine cable across the Demerara River is an integral part of a US$40M project to construct new transmission lines on the coastland along with seven new sub-stations.
The Demerara River cable provides a critical link between Kingston and Vreed-en-Hoop.
GPL badly needed the extra power from the 26-megawatt Wartsila power plant to help with its generation.
Currently, because of the damaged cable, the Vreed-en-Hoop power station is reportedly working at a third of its capacity with two of its three engines reportedly idle.

Not running to full capacity: The Wartsila power plant at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Bank Demerara.

GPL would have badly wanted those engines to work as others at Kingston and Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara, are running overtime.
Government is moving to repair the submarine cable which was reportedly cut by a ship’s propeller.
It will take several weeks to order and have the replacement cable delivered and installed.
In the meantime, citizens are expected to continue facing sporadic outages and even load shedding.
The situation has been an embarrassment to GPL, as they may have to rehire the original Chinese contractor, CMC, that laid it in the first place, to have the cable repaired.
The cost may be upwards of $100M.
GPL has been largely silent on the heavy impact that the damaged submarine cable has on the power generation capacity of that state-owned power company.