Repairs to GPL’s damaged submarine cable to begin today

DPI – The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) will today, December 14, 2020 commence remedial work on its damaged 69 Kilovolts (kV) submarine cable across the Demerara River.

The cable, which links the Vreed-en-Hoop and Kingston substations, was damaged late last month by a vessel’s anchor.

The Power Company said Saturday that technicians carried out preliminary inspections with the repairs expected to be completed on or before Christmas.
While the work was scheduled to begin Sunday, GPL said technicians instead finalised the work schedule.

In an earlier statement last month, GPL stated that the risk of short-term outages had increased as the two systems are operating without the 69 kV interconnection.

It said the risks would be further addressed with implementation of GPL’s medium-term plans which included the installation of an additional 10MW of generating capacity by December 15.

Meanwhile, the company said it will be providing emergency services to customers through its Transmission and Distribution emergency crews, contractors and 24-hour call centre staff, who are available to effect emergency services where necessary. Additionally, GPL mobilised Rapid Response Teams to address fault reports. The company is also encouraging customers to report all localised faults to its call centre on 226-2600.