GPL’s chairman defends company’s performance
With yet another year of growing anger over the national power company’s performance, the Cabinet of Ministers is set to hear next week on the current situation at the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL).
The company is continuing to face problems in its service delivery, with Board Chairman, Robert Badal, Thursday stressing that despite a stronger financial position because of tighter systems, when it comes to generating power, the company is skating on thin ice. On Tuesday, last, Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, was set to make a presentation on the situation at GPL to his colleague Cabinet ministers and President David Granger. However, because of constraints, that presentation will now be accommodated in the next Cabinet meeting set for Tuesday, says Minister of State, Joseph Harmon. Harmon made the disclosure Thursday while being questioned during the post-Cabinet press briefing. In recent weeks, there have been prolonged outages, with scheduled line maintenance two Sundays ago shutting power to the city. This was despite billions being plugged into the utility company in recent years. More than two years ago, a US40M dollars project including seven sub-stations and new transmissions lines were commissioned. This year, a US23M dollars project to introduce smart meters and run medium voltage lines on the coastland, was also launched.
Prior to this, a new 26 megawatts power plant at Vreeden-Hoop, West Bank Demerara, was commissioned in the last few years. However, generation, transmission and distribution issues continue to plague the power company, Badal said Thursday . “GPL takes its responsibility to the nation to supply reliable and stable electricity seriously at all times. In fact, our customers are its ultimate stakeholders and therefore we have an unwavering commitment to this mandate.” The official said that the recent spate of blackouts in the city and around the country have caused much concern among customers. “While we apologize for these interruptions it is important to understand the constraints and challenges affecting GPL’s everyday operations and the circumstances surrounding these outages. The outages were the result of intensified maintenance works on both generating assets and the transmission and distribution network (grid).”
(Kaieteurnews.com)