Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) Aeshwar Deonarine is pointing to huge improvements in the power company’s systems thanks to a number of plans for the upcoming Christmas season and new year.
These plans include the upgrading of power supplies, renewed maintenance works, and a crackdown on electricity theft in Guyana.
Currently, the generation site in Demerara has its peak in the evenings at about 79 megawatts, Deonarine said. This rate is expected to rise to about 82 megawatts for the Christmas holiday. According to Deonarine, the total capacity of Demerara is currently at 90 megawatts, 8 megawatts above what is expected for the Christmas season.
On the transmission distribution network front, maintenance is underway and is expected to be completed by December 15. According to Deonarine, there will be no scheduled outages after. He further stated that additional crews along with the regular maintenance crews will be available in cases of emergencies. Most defective poles and transformers have been identified and replaced.
Berbice, he said, is also covered with at least two 5-megawatt machines set up and running. Overhauls on two remaining machines will be completed soon.
Deonarine also noted several challenges the company faces, including electricity theft.
This challenge affects GPL on two fronts, he said: there are persons who are not customers and would illegally tap into the system and there are customers who would either try to bypass or tamper with meters.
Deonarine revealed that GPL has been trying with a number of strategies to combat electricity theft, including the introduction of more technological solutions, such as the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The introduction of AMI, which is currently in the pilot phase, is new to Guyana. However, it has been hugely successful in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
The pilot phase, which will be carried out for the next 3 to 6 months, will involve 2,000 meters and is beneficial to the customer because it can help them in the management of power usage. The meter provides real time information to customers and GPL and will remove the necessity of meter readers.
The meter will also contain a motion sensor to decrease chances of customers interfering with equipment and will serve to alert the company immediately.
The redesigned pilot schemes are funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in a number of small areas and have so far reaped huge steps in these areas.
For the new year, a 26-megawatt set will be established in Vreed-en-Hoop by April along with the completion of the Chinese infrastructure and development projects and a new sub-station. An automated Demerara-Berbice interconnected system, where power can be transmitted all the way back to Berbice from Demerara in cases of excess supplies, is also in the works.
There will also be a move to replace wooden poles with concrete and galvanized tubing poles.
According to Deonarine, there has been an increase in demand for meters with over 170,000 existing customers and with an expected increase for Christmas. New meters will be coming in by year end and meters are currently in stock.
When asked about the shortage of prepaid meters, Deonarine stated that this is due to the unexpected demand for prepaid meters, not only by new customers but also by existing customers. He stated that 18,000 prepaid meters have been ordered and will be here by year end.
A new initiative has seen the placement of meters on poles for the testing of the AMI.
This testing will determine whether the new meters will work better on the poles rather than on premises.
If these meters work better on the poles, GPL will develop an interface to allow customers to see what their meters readings are, Deonarine said. The findings of the tests will determine whether this move will become a permanent feature or not.
