Illegal “hookups” and other forms of electricity theft across the country are costing the Guyana Power anf Light Company (GPL) more than two and a half billion dollars in lost revenue annually and according to the company’s Chief Executive Officer Bharrat Dindyal stamping out a problem which he says is strangling the electricity generation sector is not as simple as it may appear.
GPL is aware of numerous cases of electricity “rip offs” but the legal requirement of presenting the evidence in court coupled with the potential for confrontation between the company’s crews and power thieves are hindering the resolution of the problem.
More than 300 persons are currently before the courts for power theft offences but Dindyal says that these represent only a tiny fraction of the offenders.
Power theft and high fuel charges are the two biggest challenges confronting the GPL and Dindyal says that if the company’s losses due to the stealing of electricity were to stop tomorrow GPL would earn enough to remedy its chronic network and generation problems in five years.
“Our total losses amount to 33.4 per cent. Our non-technical losses (due overwhelmingly to power theft) are around 29 per cent. In Jamaica, which comes closest to Guyana, overall losses are 17 per cent. No country in the region comes even a close second to Guyana in terms of the sheer scale of power theft,” Dindyal told Stabroek Business.
There is, Dindyal says, a paradox between the scale of power theft and the strident consumer demands for an improved electricity service. He says that GPL continues to forego tariff increases that the company can legitimately impose under the terms of its contract. “Tariff increases to which we are entitled would probably take electricity rates to around 60 per cent above what they are at this time. People who are not aware of this would probably assume that we are insensitive to high tariff rates, Dindyal said.
The GPL Chief Executive Officer told Stabroek Business that the problem of power theft was particularly prevalent in some new housing areas. He also fingered music systems that provide public entertainment, asserting that 99 per cent of these are openly stealing power directly from GPL. “Although we are aware of these incidents of power theft, there are cases in which we cannot have our crews intervene for fear that they will run into difficulties,” he added.
Dindyal said that faced with the twin difficulties of huge loss of revenue resulting from power theft and rising fuel prices the GPL was not being allowed the opportunity to improve the quality of its service. “We are not progressing, we’re just surviving.”
Late last year GPL announced that its fuel costs alone were exceeding its total revenue. This year, according to Dindyal the company is spending around $50m dollars a day in fuel.
Noting that the company will soon have to address the current increase in fuel prices Dindyal said that while the company was trying to avoid any further increases in electricity rates it was seeking, at the same time, to persuade consumers to help in reducing losses.
Meanwhile Dindyal disclosed that GPL will invest “between US$15m and US$20m in new meters for commercial and domestic consumers.
“Large customers” will be provided with the Itron meter that is equipped to record evidence of tampering. GPL will also begin to provide domestic customers with a Split meter which will be mounted on a pole. Consumers using the Split meter will have a small panel installed on their premises that will allow them to enter the amount of power they are buying.
Meanwhile Dindyal reported that the company has collected most of the amounts owed by large businesses for 2007 but that collections from domestic customers and small businesses fell by around $700m.