Engineer arrested after excavator hits GPL line, causing major power outage in Demerara

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has arrested the engineer at a road construction site in Georgetown after a heavy-duty machinery made contact with the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc.’s transmission line, resulting in a widespread power outage in the Demerara County on Sunday.

In a statement, GPL said that at approximately 08:50 hours, several areas across Demerara (Georgetown, East Bank and East Coast, West Bank and West Coast) experienced a service interruption.
GPL teams were immediately deployed to assess the L10 Transmission Line linking the New Georgetown and Sophia Substations. Investigations confirmed that the disruption was caused by heavy-duty machinery making contact with the line.
According to the power company, checks at Dennis Street established that China Railway First Group was conducting road expansion works in the area at the time.
“The service interruption is as a result of machinery, attached to China Railway First Group, making contact with our 69,000-volt transmission line 10, which links our New Georgetown and Sophia Substations, causing it to trip. The Guyana Police Force has since arrested the Site Engineer,” it noted in a subsequent update.
Apart from the disruption to service, GPL emphasised that contact with electrical infrastructure poses a grave risk to life.
It further pointed out that incidents of this nature can result in severe injury or death, in addition to widespread outages and damage to the network.
“GPL is therefore strongly urging all contractors and members of the public to exercise extreme caution when operating near electrical lines and to strictly observe all safety protocols and clearance requirements. The company further underscores that any party found responsible for damage to critical infrastructure will face the full brunt of the law,” the power company warned.
While some areas in Georgetown and West Demerara were repowered just after midday, other locations such as communities along the East Bank corridor were affected until almost 17:00h when the power was finally restored.
Many frustrated citizens took to social media throughout the day to vent their anger about the situation.

Accountable
Meanwhile, the arrest of the site engineer comes as GPL intensifies efforts to hold persons accountable for damaging its infrastructure. In recent years, there have been mounting concerns about the repeated damage to utility infrastructure especially by road construction works as well as by vehicular accidents.
Just last month during a hearing before the Public Utilities Commission, PUC Chairman Dr Nanda Gopaul had called for those persons responsible to be held financially accountable for the damages they caused.
In response, GPL’s Team Leader, Kesh Nandlall, explained that the power company has been working with the Police Force to ensure those offenders face legal action.
“There was a lot of charges being meted out to these contractors… We have a team of guys that are working very closely with the police. So, when we have these incidents, we act immediately,” Nandlall told the Commission.