The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) has remained mum on the intermittent blackouts that have continued since the Easter weekend across parts of the East Coast, East Bank and Georgetown.
Up to yesterday businesses in Georgetown were reporting blackouts and persistent low voltages throughout the day.
One Saturday, GPL’s Public Relations Officer Shevionne Sears-Murray had said via telephone that a trip in the GPL system severed power to some section of the city. South and North Georgetown, along with East La Penitence were the affected areas, she had said, adding that a technical team was sent to assess the situation and the problem would be resolved in 15 minutes. Power went off again subsequently after being restored at 19:00 hrs and was restored at 20:30 hrs.
Previously GPL released a statement noting that a total of four total shutdowns had occurred in the Demerara power system over the Easter weekend.
GPL stated that technical problems at the Kingston power station caused the shutdowns at 09:58 hrs, 11:04 hrs and 12:02 hrs on Easter Sunday. GPL said its engineers worked to rectify the problems and the last affected community was reenergized at 12.58 hrs.
GPL did not elaborate on what these technical problems were. Critics continue to argue that despite assurances, GPL is nowhere near to getting on top of the problems plaguing it.
In addition to the three on Sunday last, GPL said that on Tuesday April 22, at 04:45 hrs, a vehicle hit and broke a primary pole on Homestretch Avenue, causing a shutdown in the Demerara Interconnected System.
GPL added that there were numerous localized outages as a result of kites becoming entangled in the network.
The statement which came three days after the shutdowns, did little to answer why Easter weekend was also plagued by constant low voltage and blackouts on the East Coast Demerara, in Georgetown and on the East Bank.
Residents along the coast were frustrated for most of Friday evening when they experienced low voltage which eventually ended in a blackout lasting up to four hours in areas such as Cummings Lodge and Industry.
