major works to repair the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) 69kV submarine cable link between the Vreed-en-Hoop and Kingston substations, which was completely severed by a ship’s anchor recently, are expected to start today.
In an announcement detailing its preparation for the Christmas season, GPL yesterday said that repair technicians were onsite yesterday to undertake preliminary inspection and that major repair works would begin today.
The repairs are projected to be completed on or before Christmas.
Last week, GPL’s Director of Power Generation and Distribution Bharat Harjohn told Stabroek News that the Chinese cable manufacturer would be repairing the cable and arrangements were being finalized for a team of engineers to arrive in Guyana to undertake works.
From preliminary investigations done by the company into how the cable was severed, Harjohn has said when the vessel dropped its anchor on the river bed, it hooked onto the cable and this was dragged for some time.
Meanwhile, GPL yesterday also noted that all planned maintenance activities for 2020 at its Garden-of-Eden, Vreed-en-Hoop and Kingston Power Plants has been completed.
There is usually an increase in energy demand during the Christmas season usually.
GPL said it will have a total of 155MW available generating capacity, while there will be an expected peak demand of 130MW, with the residual 25MW comprising spinning reserve and standby generation.
GPL also reported that three of the six 1.6 Megawatt (MW) Caterpillar units purchased by the company to boost generating capacity for the holiday season have been deployed and are operational. Three units were deployed at GPL’s Onverwagt (West Berbice) facility, while the remaining three are at GPL’s Sophia, Georgetown location and are slated to become operational today.
GPL further added that it will be providing emergency services to its customers via its Transmission and Distribution emergency crews, contractors and 24-hour call centre staff, who are available to provide emergency services where required.
Additionally, GPL has also mobilised rapid response teams to expeditiously address customers’ fault reports. GPL encouraged customers to report all localised faults to its 24/7 call centre on 226-2600.
