Live maintenance, capacitor bars among strategies for GPL to improve service

…company expresses concern over vehicle accidents causing outages
The Guyana Power and Light (GPL), which has been catching flak for service interruptions, and only recently made an appearance before the Public Utility Commission (PUC) regarding its service, has a number of strategies it is pursuing to better improve power distribution.

During its recent appearance before the PUC, the power company’s Operations Division Director, Bharat Harjohn, explained that the installation of capacitor bars will better regulate power along the grid. According to him, this should be concluded by mid-year.
“We’re presently looking at installing capacitors on the distributor side of the grid, that is on the feeders. We’ve started that process. We have a couple more that will get done. So hopefully by mid of this year, we’ll put in place some of the distribution feeders,” he explained.
“Like for example, the ones on the West Coast and East Coast, those highly-populated areas where we have these long feeders, we’re installing these capacitor bars to improve the voltage level,” he said.
He explained that they assess every outage and what can be done to alleviate it. While he acknowledged that the grid is not optimal, they are looking at ways they can use the existing configuration and better manage it to reduce interruptions.
According to Harjohn, the power company will embark on more maintenance works when the weather permits. He also expressed concern over vehicular accidents which have at times caused power outages.
This was evident only days ago, when a bus slammed into a utility pole at Vlissengen Road and Sandy Babb Street. The accident caused power outages to sections of Georgetown and Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).
“Despite the challenges we get in terms of our internal resources, we’re gonna use contractors, we’re gonna start looking at doing live line maintenance so that we don’t have to take the power off the customer. We can change a cross arm, we can change an insulator, with the feeder being live.”
“Vegetation management is a continuous effort. Because as we know for a feeder trip is very higher in terms of outages. And one of the reasons for that is the conductor touching tree branches. We have unbalanced loading on the feeder, causing some of these trips. And vehicular accidents. For this year we’ve seen a lot of vehicular accidents causing feeders to be out and we have power outages,” Harjohn also said.
Last year, plans were announced for GPL to invest US$293 million to improve its transmission and distribution infrastructure – a project that will see the utility company juggle rebuilding the entire network while maintaining service as much as possible.
Dindyal had explained that GPL is planning to overhaul its systems, presumably the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS). It is a project that will end up costing approximately US$293 million, for which they are currently seeking financing, but which will ultimately benefit consumers.
The CEO had also noted that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has historically been GPL’s go-to source for financing. He said that while other financial institutions have expressed an interest in funding the project, GPL will be looking at the terms being offered and choosing the most sustainable option.
At the PUC hearing of March 29, which reviewed GPL’s Operating Standards and Performance Targets for last year, it was revealed that consumers experienced an average of 103 power outages for 2021, when the maximum number of outages consumers should experience on average, according to the standard, is 90.
It was noted that consideration for the impact the company’s failure to reach its targets has on consumers, determines whether any penalty will be levied on the company. It was revealed in the report coming out of the hearing that PUC decided not to impose any penalties. (G3)