NDIA-operated excavator causes explosion at Kingston Power Plant

The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Incorporated is again imploring with utility companies to be cautious when working in proximity to its network after an excavator tripped its distribution feeders at the Kingston Power Plant on Sunday, resulting in two hours of power outage.

According to GPL, an excavator executing works at the corner of Cowan and High Streets in Kingston, Georgetown, came into contact with its network, causing one of the primary distribution feeders at the Kingston Power Plant to trip.
“[This resulted] in the loss of approximately 36 megawatts (MW) of generation. This sudden loss of generation caused a cascading effect on the grid which resulted in several generating units going offline, disrupting service to customers in Demerara and Berbice,” the power company explained.
The incident occurred sometime around 12:42h and restoration works commenced immediately. Consequently, at approximately 12:53h, the first area in Demerara was repowered.
Incremental restoration continued until all areas in Demerara and Berbice were fully repowered at approximately 14:09h.
“Our company continues to implore the public to exercise extreme caution when operating machinery in close proximity to the company’s network to avoid unnecessary incidents of this nature… We continue to implore contractors to contact GPL before executing work in close proximity to our network,” GPL noted in a statement on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Minister within the Public Works Ministry Deodat Indar revealed in a post on his Facebook page on Sunday, that the excavator was being operated by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).
“…a long reach excavator operated by NDIA at High Street Kingston came into contact with high voltage wire there, resulting in a huge explosion bringing down the power plants,” Indar stated.
This is the second time in recent months that NDIA machinery has been blamed for damages to infrastructure.
Last month, Guyana Times had reported that excavator operators working for the NDIA had damaged a recently completed road on the Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) – the recently constructed $1.18 billion farm-to-market access road at Number 58 Village, Corentyne, Berbice.
In October 2022, President Dr Irfaan Ali commissioned the 6.5km all-weather road.
But during a visit in January, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill inspected the damaged road and called for an urgent meeting with Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall.
“I will have to raise this at a higher level because this is a lack of inter-agency engagement. This road was built with a particular design.”
In explaining this, he pointed out that geo-fabric and geo-cells were used in the construction because there are two waterways; one on each side of the road.
“So, we had to build this road to avoid slippage. We had to ensure that the shoulders are adequate. Since we build this road, another Government agency awarded contracts to deal with the drains and it is clear that they are inexperienced operators,” Edghill noted.
Rather than digging the drains with a slope to ensure that the toe is in place, the walls of the canals were dug vertically.
“As a result of that, they are interfering with the shoulders of the road which is leading to slippage,” he explained.
The Minister said since taking up the position at the helm of the Public Works Ministry, he was able to address the issue of agencies digging roads shortly after they were constructed to plant utility infrastructure. Edghill said since discussing the matter with Housing and Water Minister Collin Croal, the issue has not surfaced again.
“There is a need for a discussion with the Minister of Agriculture who oversees the NDIA and we have an excellent working relationship but then there is also a need for a conversation at the technical level… Minister Mustapha with his wisdom would have awarded contracts to get this work done. The problem is when contractors are engaged, they must know what they are doing and not just what they want to do because, in the digging of these drains, they are going to affect the road.”
“When they are digging, they are pulling mud from the actual shoulders of the road. So, we have to have a conversation with local authorities when they are looking after community roads, the Ministry of Agriculture, NDIA and we have to deal with private developers who are seeking to build bridges and to excavate and clean in front of them…. from this it is a clear case where I would have to convene a meeting with the technical people as well as the Ministers and ensure that we don’t have a repeat of this because it would be spending money only for somebody to come behind and destroy. And we will have to spend money again,” Edghill posited.
Remedial work had to be done on the damaged sections of the farm-to-market access road to prevent water from getting under it and to prevent further damage. (G8)