Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has acknowledged that the current surge in daily power outages across several sections of Guyana is “bad”. Be that as it may, he maintained that the problems being faced by the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GOL) were inherited from the former coalition government.
“There is no sugarcoating this. We have a situation at GPL that we have explained 100 times before but often, explanations don’t suit people when the light goes off because it disrupts their lifestyle. It disrupts their normal activities,” Jagdeo said.
The Vice President was addressing claims made by former Minister of Public Infrastructure and Opposition Member, David Patterson, who earlier this week slammed President Irfaan Ali’s assertion that the current administration inherited a collapsing system.
Patterson had refuted this claim, emphasizing the efforts made by the previous government to revitalize GPL, and stressed the importance of effective technical management in ensuring operational efficiency. He has also alluded the power outages to the PPP’s decision to revert to outdated strategies.
Jagdeo, assured Guyanese that their frustrations are understandable but assured all that his government is committed to the task of fixing the current situation at GPL. This will include the purchase of approximately 40 to 80 megawatts (MW) of power that will help to meet growing demand until the Gas-to-Energy project at Wales, West Bank Demerara (WBD) comes on stream next year.
Furthermore, the administration is actively addressing the improvement of the current transmission and distribution network, while also emphasizing its commitment to reviving the Amaila Falls hydropower project, which was previously halted during the tenure of the former APNU+AFC administration.
Additionally, investments are being directed towards solar power projects, underscoring his government’s aim for a diversified power supply. According to Jagdeo, once these initiatives materialize, the existing power generation resources will be conserved for emergency use only.
He was also keen to note the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System heavily relies on aging diesel engines which necessitates an urgent need for upgrades.
