Navigation beacon among measures to protect GPL submarine cable

Over the past few years, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) submarine cable has been severed as many as three times, resulting in power outages and expensive repairs. But the Government has taken steps to prevent a reoccurrence.
Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar, recently explained that a navigational beacon has been set in the Demerara River where GPL’s 69 kilovolt (kV) submarine cable is buried.

“It’s a big cable we had to bring it up; we had to ensure we have to join it together using specialised materials and so on, put it down back, bury it at a particular depth. Ensure that no other ship goes in the area,” the Minister said, added that “GPL now has what you call a beacon. A navigation beacon, so they can pick it up that there’s a cable here. We don’t allow anybody to put their vessels down there anymore.”
It is understood that this beacon, from a land-based location, will transmit the location of the cable to ships who will be able to view the coordinates on their navigational monitors. All ships must be equipped with this navigational equipment based on maritime law.
Recalling the mishap which resulted in the Government having to fly in Chinese contractors from China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMEC), the company that initially laid and subsequently repaired the cable, Indar described it as a nightmare. Additionally, the Minister said that the company whose ship caused the accident and the Government were presently in court over the matter.
“That was a nightmare incident. It happened in a COVID environment and we couldn’t get the technicians out of China to come to Guyana. We had to get them through Brazil. They couldn’t come through the US. We had to get the Chinese Embassy here to assist. They fixed it, it cost us over $200 million to fix back that cable.
“With respect to the company, the ship that actually did that severing of the cable, we commandeered it when it came back to the country. We actually seized it and then we got a court order to do that. And when we did that, the people, the agents made representation on that matter. They lodged insurance and that matter is in the court now. We’re supposed to get resolution on that.”
The 69kV submarine cable links GPL’s Vreed-en-Hoop and Kingston substations and allows for the transfer of electrical power into the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).
The cable was damaged in late November after it was struck by the anchor of the vessel in the Demerara River. As a result of this incident, consumers in Regions Four, Five and Six experienced service disruptions.
Repairs were completed on the cable shortly before Christmas. At the time, Minister Indar had said that the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) had issued instructions to maritime operators that Area B (where the cable is situated) was now a restricted zone and operators were prohibited from anchoring their vessels there.
“Because the cable has been damaged four times, every time it is severed it gets shorter… ships can’t be anchoring there, we have to monitor that,” Indar had said.
In June 2019, GPL’s 13.8kV submarine cable, which rests along the Demerara River near Craig, East Bank Demerara, was dislodged by a barge sailing along the channel.
As a result of this incident, West Demerara customers from Vriesland to La Retraite were without electricity while efforts were made to alternatively power these customers from the Vreed-en-Hoop Substation. (G3)