The government yesterday said that when it entered office in August 2020, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) had a “crippling” receivables figure of $13b.
It was the latest salvo in a battle of words between it and former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson, more recently over the quality of services by Power Producers and Distributors Inc (PPDI).
The government said that Patterson continues to promulgate smokescreens and downright falsehoods about the surreptitious operations he personally orchestrated at GPL and PPDI. It said that this was done as a result of the absence of a Board of Directors at GPL for almost two years, where Patterson was the sole decision maker at GPL and the results of these decision were disastrous.
The government also said that under Patterson’s leadership it saw the lack of maintenance on the transmission lines coupled with little or no investment in baseload generation capacity which are the main reasons for the blackouts
currently being experienced.
“Our government has been working tirelessly to restore the progressive outlook of GPL within a broader framework of cheaper and more sustainable energy production to improve the daily lives of our citizens.
“Already, we have reinstated the uncompromising, robust maintenance regime at GPL, reverting to the above board procurement practice for the use of original spares directly from source; and getting back to the well established pre 2015 schedule of maintenance of transmission lines across the entire grid system”, the statement from the government said.
In the medium term, it said that significant increases in the generated power will be achieved in response to the demand, with the internal introduction of nine additional sets, and a request for proposals that can potentially see the external addition of 50 megawatts to be added to the grid.
