The Guyana Power and Light Incorpora-ted (GPL) is aiming to reduce electricity losses to 23% by 2019, which would be 5.5% less than the current losses of 28.5%, according to Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson.
The minister said at his monthly press briefing yesterday that the current power failures were technical in nature and that he has expressed to GPL that it could do a better job of explaining why such outages occur.
He explained that there needs to be an overhaul of the maintenance at the power company which would ensure that money is being spent on the necessary components.
“It was not a question of them not having a maintenance programme it is a question of the company not funding it fully. Therefore at 12:00 hours if you’re supposed to strip an entire generating set down and change ball bearing and those things like that and it would cost $1.2 million, the maintenance team has said to me that when they asked, for some reason, they only got $600,000… half the money so they only did half the maintenance,” Patterson told members of the media.
He continued that “I told them they are shooting themselves in the foot and bringing the country in jeopardy.”
The minister said that once the maintenance programme was well planned it would be properly funded.
Patterson said that he was aiming for 1.2% loss reduction per annum to take into consideration the current system and technical issues. He added that he was focused, within the next 18 months, on removing Bartica, Wakenaam, Leguan and the Essequibo Coast from the grid which will ease the strain placed on the grid by non-recoverable fossil fuel outlying systems.
He said that as capacity building grew at the company it was the fall in the loss reduction that would see long-standing results even though the percentage progression was slow.
Meanwhile, Patterson was not able to relay to the media the status of GPL’s new board of directors. He did state that the government would not be seeking applicants to fill the Chief Executive Officer’s position until such time as the board was in place.
Additionally the minister said that he could not provide any update on whether or not Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Administration), Aeshwar Deonarine had repaid some $27 million of the company’s money which he transferred into his account with the assistance of labour leader Carvil Duncan, who was a director on GPL’s board and who had also paid himself $900,000.
There is an ongoing police investigation into the matter and Deonarine has been sent on leave.
Patterson revealed that in keeping power issues at the forefront Cabinet gave its no objection to the increase in rates for the Electrical Inspectorate division of the ministry.
He said that for many building the time frame from when electrical certificates were awarded to now was a “massive time gap”. The minister revealed that for a starter home of roughly 750 square feet the new fee would be $3,900 from $91 and for a standard two-bedroom or three-bedroom home the rate would increase to $9,300.
Patterson said that the inspectors and contractors would normally do the work for a standard rate, at times higher than $10,000, while paying the meagre rate charged by the ministry to have persons placed on the grid.
He said this review and increase would directly assist with audits being performed on various buildings which have since changed functions without being re-inspected.
By auditing and re-inspecting buildings that have long been certified the division from the ministry can assess delinquencies and identify the strains that are placed on the grid due to overworking.
