Dear Editor,
There must be a formula for normal charges by GPL. I am prepared to offer my household and its contents as the guinea pig – the national example – of what the Guyanese home is allowed to have in terms of appliances before GPL charges become a mortgage. In the past I have refrained from the usual transgressions concerning the consistent power hikes, though for some unusual reason my home became a target for GPL search teams. One team would come and explore, then within two months another team would come and conduct the same exploration. They would ask to look inside the home which I knew was not mandatory, yet I would allow them. I have in my possession a loss reduction report from one such team visit. My wife worked at then GEC in their billing department, and understood how meters work, so she often joined the meter readers to correlate with their findings. My charges were then between $13,000 to
$17,000 per month, as we struggled to keep this large sum at its lowest. This changed when in Jan-Feb the so-called commercial meters were put in place, high up on the electrical posts, depriving us of any monitoring.
My charges with the same household items and fewer people suddenly went to $19,000-plus, then to $20,000-plus, and up to the last few months to $35,000-plus. Alarmed, in August I visited the GPL office and assured the staff that I spoke to, that I had no power tools type operation, or electric cooking devices; I have the same household items I had in December 2013. They seemed as bewildered as I was about the sudden jumps in energy charges. I also have other conspiracy suspicions.
I explored some friends with small business operations, not with heavy equipment, and it seems that somehow I had fallen into a $35,000 to $45,000 bracket without the support energy consuming criteria. Was I paying for someone else’s power usage? Something is wrong; however, I was told that this new system is monitored by computers in some office cell some place. That is no assurance for me, as computers are not mystical truth forces but are machines programmed to output what is input, thus they can be programmed to itemize and heighten results as the scenario requires. I courteously signed a document requesting an investigation, as from the frequent visits by GPL crews to these meters, I am sure that they are far from as sanctimonious as indicated. I requested a prepaid meter, but was denied this. Upon leaving I chatted with some GPL guys I knew, and I again raised the question of the prepaid meters. I was told that these were not working in GPL’s interest, so they were been discontinued. I was also told that the previous meters, the one that I previously had were malfunctioning, so I enquired who imported them all, verified them and installed them – wasn’t it GPL? And what does GPL’S interest constitute? Am I (John-Public) now paying for phases of screw-ups? So far the requested team has not visited my home, but I’ve received a bill identical to the last few they sent me.
Yours faithfully,
Barrington Braithwaite
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Ms Shevion Sears-Murray, the PRO of Guyana Power and Light for any comment she might wish to make.