VP “upset” by power outage, demands better communication from GPL

…assures long-term solutions being developed

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has expressed that he, too, was “upset” with the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) over the prolonged period of power outage sections of the country experienced on Thursday.

“I was upset with them because they have power in their system,” Jagdeo told reporters during his weekly press conference.
However, he explained that GPL informed him that they encountered a problem at the Kingston substation. The problem was related to ‘the batteries’, Jagdeo noted.
He further explained that the blackout had nothing to do with the unavailability of power.
Nevertheless, the Vice President noted that “until we have a modern grid with redundancies”, the country will continue to experience periods of blackout.
Jagdeo assured that the Government is committed to building out such a modern system.
The vice president also rapped the GPL team for failing to keep the public updated in a timely manner on these important developments.
In an effort to provide cheaper, cleaner, and more renewable energy to the population, the Government has embarked on the transformative gas-to-energy project, under which Government would utilise natural gas offshore to generate up to 300 Mw of electricity.
To support this project, a number of other components are required. One of them is a state-of-the-art control centre, which is under construction at Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
In July 2024, a US$8.6 million contract was signed with Power China Caribbean to construct the facility. This centre would employ real-time monitoring to identify and address power outages promptly. It would also enable remote disconnections.
Another component of the gas-to-energy project is the upgrade of the transmission and distribution lines. Last week, contracts totalling US$442 million were signed to overhaul the existing infrastructure.

Failed
Meanwhile, minutes after the vice president had expressed dissatisfaction, GPL said in a statement that at about 07:25h on Thursday, a technical fault occurred at the Kingston Power Plant. The Direct Power Control System failed on the Busbar, triggering the disconnection of all breakers on that Busbar, including three critical feeders, two generators, and a main 69kV transformer. As a result, the Kingston Plant went offline, causing a cascading shutdown across the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS).
“Engineers immediately began assessing the failure at the Kingston Plant, while System Control Engineers promptly initiated power restoration efforts, starting from the Garden of Eden location. An investigation found damaged components at the Kingston Plant, and immediate efforts are being made to secure and install replacements. Further investigation and analyses are being carried out,” GPL has said.