Tuesday’s shutdown of the Denerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) resulted in the loss of 36 Megawatts (MWs) prior to the repowering of the grid.
In a statement, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) said that at approximately 2.05 PM on Tuesday, the DBIS experienced a shutdown.
“A preliminary finding revealed a cable connection failure between our Kingston 2 generating facility and a primary distribution feeder (F7 Feeder on Water Street, Kingston).
“This failure triggered a loss of the station service transformer at this generating facility, which resulted in the loss of generators units with an aggregate capacity of approximately 36 Megawatts (MWs)”, GPL said.
The statement said that the cable connection failure was isolated and at approximately 2.13 pm incremental restoration commenced in Demerara and continued until all areas in Demerara and Berbice were repowered at approximately 4.50 pm.
“Our Company remains cognizant of the inconveniences associated with unplanned service interruptions and continues to work towards minimising these outages”, GPL said.
Shutdowns of the DBIS have underlined the fragility of the transmission and distribution system despite the large sums poured into it over the years. The shutdowns have also highlighted the challenge that could be posed to big ticket projects such as the Amaila Falls Hydro which will be channelling large amounts of power via a single transmission line from the interior.
