Consumers vent frustration about GPL’s “unreliable” power supply

As the festive season draws nearer, consumers from across the country have made numerous complaints about the constant power outages experienced throughout the day and the effects they have on their activities.
On the West Coast of Demerara (WCD), residents indicated that they would have received over six intermittent power outages, especially in the morning and early afternoon hours.
According to some, this has raised some concerns about the reliability of the power supply and the Guyana Power and Light’s ability to effectively meet the demands of all households and businesses, especially around this period.
Sharda Bissesar of Uitvlugt, WCD, explained that she has been living in the area for the past seven months and the quality of service seemingly has decreased during the holiday season.
“Leading up to the second week this month, we had like three blackouts every week and now it’s every day. Like you cannot predict what to do and always have to be prepared, ‘cause any time it’s happening and the service is very unreliable. I’m disappointed,” she stated.
On the West Bank of Demerara (WBD), while there were complaints of unreliable service, another issue was the fact that calls went unanswered when consumers were trying to report these matters, as well as utility staffers taking ages to fix the problems.
“I called last week about four times in the morning, because I was ironing and the current went off and on the fourth call, then somebody answered to say that it [the power supply] will come on shortly. We had to wait three-and-a-half-hours and this isn’t the first time,” an aggravated resident of Vreed-en-Hoop, WBD, explained.
The same issue has been recorded in sections of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) such as Herstelling and Diamond, and in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
Throughout last week, line maintenance was conducted within the perimeters of Georgetown and other sections of the coast. The power company would have advised persons that these activities would result in intermittent power outages, but many consumers have stated that this trend has continued throughout this week.
Ironically, Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson had assured Guyanese that there would be full electricity capacity for the entire Christmas season. According to him, GPL has a supply of 134 megawatts of power and there were efforts to fix any shortcomings before the holidays.
Patterson announced that some $3.9 billion was listed in the 2019 Budget for works on the distribution network, which is considered a weak link in the power supply. However, this would materialise only next year.