GPL says it is very concerned that persons seem to be taking electricity theft to new heights since on Monday the illegal interference with a transmission line operating at 69,000 volts was suicidal.
The power company said in a press release that the power outage on Monday evening which affected the Demerara Interconnected System (DIS) was caused by an attempt by someone to steal power from the 69,000 volts transmission line linking the Garden of Eden Power Station to Sophia. This incident, GPL stated, occurred in the vicinity of South Ruimveldt.
According to the release, residents in the area said that they saw an enormous blue flare and heard a loud explosion before the power outage. GPL engineers confirmed that what the residents had seen and heard was consistent with what happens when anything comes into contact with or is in close proximity to the transmission line.
When the engineers visited the area, they saw that a part of the transmission line was damaged where it is believed that the person attempted to make the illegal connection. Also running along the pole was what is believed to be telephone cable like the type used in other areas to steal power.
However, GPL said, it is not yet clear what is the extent of injuries sustained by whoever attempted to make the illegal connection, but it is possible that the person may have been severely burned or his sight may have been affected.
Serious injury and death are the consequences of such actions besides the thousands of homes left without power as a result of such recklessness, the power company added.
