The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) is advising customers who are powered by the Sophia Substation to prepare for a disruption of service on Sunday from 8 am to 5 pm in order to facilitate a major upgrade operation at the Sophia 69kV substation.
In a press release issued yesterday, the power company said the temporary disruption of service is to facilitate the connection of existing and new equipment at the upgraded substation where work has been proceeding in a live environment; a planned shutdown of the substation will be required. “This is unavoidable and a necessary requirement to ensure the safety of the construction workers,” the company said.
Consequently, customers in the following areas will be affected by the power outage: East Coast Demerara between Liliendaal and Bygeval; Bel Air Village, Gardens, Promenade, Springs and Park; Congress Place; Lamaha Gardens; Festival City, North Ruimveldt, South Ruimveldt Park and section of GuyHoc Park; Vlissengen Road between Lamaha Street and North Road; section of Laluni and Lance Gibbs streets, Church Street between Vlissengen Road and New Garden Street; Camp Street between Lamaha and New Market streets, New Market Street between Camp and East streets, part of Thomas Street, North Cummingsburg and the Sophia Exhibition Site.
This exercise is part of the modernisation of the Sophia substation under GPL’s Infrastruc-ture Development Programme (IDP) aimed at improving the company’s transmission and distribution network across the country. The IDP is a collaboration between the Guyana Government, GPL and China through a concessionary loan of US$38.96 million from China Export-Import Bank (Eximbank). This amount is supplemented by US$3.9 million from counterpart sources for preparatory works, including route clearing, site preparation and backfilling to above 2005 flood levels.
The programme entails the construction of seven new 69/13.8kV substations, expansion/upgrade of three existing 69/13.8kV substations, construction of about 96km of 69kV transmission lines, including a link between the Demerara and Berbice Interconnected Systems, 2.1km of submarine cable, the construction of a new central control centre with SCADA capabilities, and installation of 251km of fibre optic cable.
To date, two new substations at Edinburgh, WCD and Vreed-en-Hoop, WBD, one expanded substation at Kingston, Georgetown and 14 km of interconnecting transmission lines with fibre optic cable were constructed. The systems were commissioned in November/ December 2012 and are in service.
Work is currently advancing on the construction of the remaining five new substations at New Sophia, Good Hope, New Georgetown, Columbia (Mahaicony) and Golden Grove, EBD; two expanded/upgraded stations at Sophia and Onverwagt WCB, the central control centre and 80 km of interconnecting transmission lines and fibre optic cable. The project is expected to be completed by December 2013.
GPL apologised for the inconvenience that the disruption will cause, while adding that it strives to provide consistent supply of electricity to customers countrywide.
