After a shutdown in the Demerara Berbice Inter-connected System (DBIS) resulted in large parts of the country being plunged into blackout on Sunday night, a second incident on the system yesterday resulted in large parts of Georgetown and other areas experiencing a shutdown for several hours.
According to a release from the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), around 11 am yesterday, a second “system disturbance” resulted in trips along the feeders supplying electricity to Queenstown, Albert-town and surrounding areas along with the transmission line linking the Kingston and Sophia Substations, which resulted in a total shutdown within the DBIS.
“Given the reoccurrence, and potential damage to the network, a comprehensive examination of the high voltage corridor was conducted,” the statement said. It added that the examination revealed “a fault at the junction of Lamaha Avenue and Vlissingen Road” where a feeder came into contact with a 69Kv transmission line and the necessary work to correct the issue commenced around 3 pm yesterday.
However, because of the work a load-shedding exercise was required as a result of the de-energizing of the affected 13.8Kv feeder and the 69Kv transmission line. As such, customers along the East Coast, East Bank, West Bank and Georgetown were affected.
“We remain cognizant of the inconveniences these interruptions cause and sincerely offer our apologies,” the statement said.
Around 8 pm on Sunday, the entire DBIS experienced a shutdown following a trip of a transformer at the Kingston Power Plant and the feeders supplying electricity to Queenstown, Alberttown and the surrounding areas. Repairs started subsequently after and the power company said it was able to restore power to most of the areas by 11 pm.
