248 complaints filed against GPL in 2018

Despite a 32 per cent decline in complaints last year, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) received some 248 complaints against the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc – nearly half of the 563 total complaints against utility companies during that period.
Of the total complaints, 16 per cent represents tampering issues with GPL’s service and 11 per cent were against the power company for technical issues with their infrastructure and meters.
The highest complaints against GPL were received from Regions Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). These complaints had to do with application for new service (27 complaints), billing issues (35), change of tenancy (6), claims of compensation (13), claims of wrongful disconnection (7), allegation of tampering (90), reconnection of service (6), and technical issues (64).
This information, which was contained in the PUC’s 2018 Annual Report, comes at a time when the power company is continuously criticised for failing to provide stable electricity to the country.
The annual report also revealed that the Commission has fined GPL for failing to improve its services in accordance with performance targets previously set out.
Back in October 2010, GPL’s license was expanded to include Operating Standards and Performance Targets (OSPT), which are eight service standards with pre-determined targets that the company is expected to achieve.
However, PUC Chair Dela Britton explained in the report that in the first quarter of 2018, the Commission, as required by law, reviewed GPL’s 2017 OSPT and found that the company had failed to improve its service against its 2016 standards. As a consequence, the Commission imposed a fine of five per cent of the total value of dividends payable to the company’s shareholders.
“This stance by the Commission sent a strong message to the utility company, which should in turn motivate it to strive to achieve optimum standards,” Britton posited.

No profit
In the report, the Commission went on to flag the power company over its inability to earn a profit as contained in the license. GPL presented its Development and Expansion Five Year Programme 2018-2022 to the PUC last November, detailing, among other things, that it is projecting an accumulated operating loss of some $21 billion.
The PUC said it is “disquieting” that the power company intends to rely on debt capital to fund its operations during this period. This, it noted, will trigger a significant increase in GPL’s liabilities at the end of the programme. The Commission also expressed reservations that this debt may prove unsustainability for the company.
“The seemingly inability of the company to earn a profit as contained in the license, ultimately limits the company’s liquidity and creates un-certainty in planning. This is evidenced by repeated failures of the company to achieve its planned deliverables in its successive five-year rolling Development and Expansion programmes,” the report outlined.
Among these deliverables, in its five-year plan is the on-going programme to install approximately 85,000 Advance Meter Infrastructure (AMI) metres, something which the PUC Chair commended GPL for. The AMI metred will allow the power company to not only bring an end to manual meter readings, but also reduce meter tampering.
The implementation of the AMI meters commenced in 2014 under the Power Utility Upgrade Program (PUUP). In its five-year Development and Expansion Plan, GPL had projected that in 2018 21,696 AMI meters will be installed nationwide. However, the Commission reported that this projection fell short as only 14,695 AMI meters were installed last year.
Nevertheless, it was outlined that at the end of the current Development and Expansion programme, the company anticipates that commercial losses— which are losses associated with consumers’ theft of electricity— would be reduced from its current 14.7 per cent at the end of 2017 to 8.22 per cent by the end of 2022. This reduction will be mainly attributable to the installation of the AMI meters.
On the downside, however, technical losses as a result of the distribution of electricity through its transmission systems are anticipated to remain at much the same level in 2022 as it was in 2018.
Moreover, the Commission noted GPL, in its five-year plan, budgeted to spend approximately US$30 million in capital works to its transmission and distribution system, and during this period technical losses are anticipated to be reduced from 15.24 per cent in 2018 to 14.81 per cent in 2022.
“The Commission had in its previous annual reports reported on the negative impact, which the financial cost has had, on all stakeholders. The company is urged to review its current technical loss reduction programme to determine whether more financial resources could be allotted into the programme to fast track the reduction of these losses… The significance of cheap energy to the wellbeing of a nation cannot be over emphasised and the Commission urges that there should be meaningful dialogue amongst all stakeholders to bring an end to this impasse and create a new dawn for the company,” the PUC stated in its 2018 annual report.
Meanwhile, one project that would have assisted the Guyana Power and Light to get adequate electricity supply was the Amaila Falls hydropower project, which the coalition Government continually blocked while controlling the National Assembly by a one-seat Opposition majority.
The Norway-funded project, when completed, would have provided 165 megawatts to the National Grid, thus providing cheaper and more reliable power to citizens and businesses.