Residents of Cummings Lodge and other parts of the city say they are fed up after a recent spate of blackouts in the area, which the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) says was caused by burnt line hardware that it expected to be fixed by the end of yesterday.
According to the residents, since Monday they have been experiencing frequent blackouts. “Sometimes it goes off and lasts 20 minutes and then comes on back for five minutes and the next time it goes off for an hour or so and comes on back for 10 minutes. That’s how it’s been for the past few days and as we are speaking we currently have blackout,” a resident of Tenth Street, Cummings Lodge, told Stabroek News yesterday.
However, according to a GPL spokesperson, the power outages were caused by an isolated problem in the area and had nothing to do with the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS). “We have a couple of burnt line hardware, inclusive of conductors,” the spokesperson related, while pointing out that from the power company’s initial investigation, it was revealed that as a result of some heavy wind over the past few days, some tree branches on the Sophia Dam came into contact with the wires. “That resulted in the burnt conductors and damaged lines and so as we speak the work has been started and we expect to finish by 2.30pm today [yesterday],” the spokesperson added.
While the issue started since Monday, the spokesperson related that the power company was only able to identify the problem late in the afternoon and was not able address the issue until yesterday. “Having received the report, we started a meticulous search in the area and recognized the problem late yesterday and had to start this morning at 10.30am and we should wrap up in about four hours or so,” the person added.
