In a bid to be able to better isolate faults and to have better voltage stability, Guyana Power and Light (GPL) will expend $6 billion to build four new substations and expand some existing ones.
Speaking at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s review of its 2016 operations, GPL’s CEO Renford Homer explained that they had started a transmission upgrade programme since 2012 and were able to construct about seven substations and lay the submarine cable which allowed them better stability.
A study had also been carried out by a German consultant firm which addressed the direction in which the company should be moving.
He noted that the power company has seen an increase in its customer base and there was a need to ensure, the utility could guarantee a level of reliability, which would allow the economy to function as it should.
He said they will be going in that direction to develop the company’s network and make it more fault tolerable. “Now we expect to see this particular project completed not in 2017, we will see evidence of some works in 2017, but we expect to commission these new substations and these expansions in 2018,” he said.