The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) revealed on Tuesday that it was the touching of two transmission lines of different voltages that caused the disruption in the system on Sunday, and ultimately led to blackouts across Demerara and Berbice.
The feeder that was affected—the F9 feeder— powers parts of Queenstown, Subryanville, Prashad Nagar, Kitty and sections of Sophia. According to GPL’s CEO Renford Homer, the intensity of the shock caused by the connecting of the wires, however, caused a total shutdown of the Demerara/Berbice Interconnected System.
“…we identified a major, major issue along this corridor…and this is where one of our conductors with a voltage of 13.8 kilovolts came into contact with our main transmission line which is a 69 kv line. So what you basically had were the two coming together, and of course that caused that sort of fire explosion and literally disturbed the entire network,” Homer related to the media on Tuesday, during a visit to the site of the disruption, at the junction of Lamaha Street and Vlissengen Road.
The problem has since been rectified, having only required “re-tensioning” of the lines so that they no longer touched. Following the power disruption on Sunday, Homer said the company worked to restore power as soon as was possible before moving on to identify the source of the problem, which was the case on Monday. He admitted that power restoration, which would usually occur within the hour, did take longer due to the nature of the disruption.
In the process of addressing the issue, the transmission line linking Vreed-en-Hoop to Kingston was de-energized, which resulted in parts of Queenstown, Prashad Nagar, Kitty and Subryanville being affected for an extended period, he said, while noting that this was corrected just after 5pm on Monday.
Even after identifying and rectifying the cause of the issue, another disruption occurred on Monday morning.
Homer explained that this was an effect of Sunday’s interruption, and after four transmission and distribution crews were dispatched to comb the length of two feeders in search of any defects that could “cause a feedback and lead to other complications,” it was discovered on Monday that the F9 feeder had become entangled with another. It is believed that that was the cause of Sunday’s major shock.
“We believe we’ve done a comprehensive check. We believe we’re in the position now where we should not experience similar disturbances, at least disturbances pertaining to this particular issue,” the CEO asserted.
Homer admitted that while there are a number of things that still need to be fixed on the network, a fair amount of investment is needed to upgrade the system. He informed the media that the company is currently working on initiatives that will allow them to identify faults quicker along power lines and isolate them to reduce the degree of disturbance along the feeders by electronic means.
Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson, who was also present at the site visit, supported Homer’s comment, noting that the ministry intends to invest $31 million from GPL’s funding between this year and the next, for the system’s upgrade. He also reminded the media of the ministry’s plans to open an alternative line, so if in future a disruption was to occur, power can be diverted through the system.
President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vishnu Doerga told this newspaper on Tuesday evening that the recent power outages had been placing an extra burden on the business community and there had been complaints from a number of members. “We urge GPL to rectify the problem as soon as possible that has been affecting services that now have value added tax. There doesn’t seem to be anything value added at all,” Doerga stated.
