Power outages in Berbice: Frequency resulting from lack of maintenance – Chairman

The frequent power outages, commonly called “blackouts”, being experienced by residents of Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) are a result of poor maintenance of the electricity network. This is according to Region Six Chairman David Armogan.

The Chairman, who was responding to questions during a recent Regional Democratic Council (RDC) meeting, said that during the period when the previous administration was in office (2015–2020), there was very little maintenance to the network system.
He said the maintenance crew is now on a robust campaign to fix faults to the power lines and utility poles on the road. This process, he told the RDC, requires power outages.
Throughout the Region, residents have been forced to cope with prolonged hours of blackout on almost a weekly basis. Armogan pointed out that there is now a greater demand for electricity in the Region.
“…in terms of new housing areas, and the capacity has not increased. So, now we have to build capacity, because the demands are more that the present capacity. It would take some time before the situation is rectified,” he said.
“So, what you find they are doing is blacking out some areas. They have to do scheduled blackouts to make sure that the system gets up-to-date, because nothing was done for a long time.”
He noted that even though there was a new power generator installed at the Canefield Power Plant by the previous administration, it never functioned until the current administration took office.
“It was just there like a white elephant,” the Chairman said. (G4)