Electricity consumers in East Berbice are likely to endure at least another month of load-shedding exercises as the Guyana Power and Light Inc. awaits the arrival of a British engineer to conduct repairs to the Number Three, 5.3 megawatt Mirlees Blackstone Generating Set at the company's Canefield Power Plant, East Canje, Berbice. The engine developed problems on August 6 last and the company had then issued a press release alerting customers of the impending load-shedding saying it was likely to last for another eight (8) to ten (10) weeks.

Earlier this week Stabroek News learnt from a GPL source that the arrival of the British engineer was still being awaited. According to the source the repairs to the Set is expected to be completed sometime this month (September). Since January Berbicians have been forced to endure daily load-shedding exercises with some areas being affected twice weekly for an average of four hours nightly. The Number Three Unit returned to service on May 1 last after its Alternator underwent extensive repairs in the United Kingdom. Its engine was overhauled in March. With the return of the Number Three Set and the availability of the Number for Unit and two Caterpillar Generators in the Region, consumers expecting a more reliable supply of power. However this was affecting a Generator resulted in seven days of widespread load-shedding throughout East and West Berbice.

Over the past few months consumers have also been affected by line maintenance activities which in some cases necessitated outages ranking from four to nine hours throughout New Amsterdam and sometimes large sections of the region. Former Chief Executive Officer Noel Hatch had said last year that the Company had to raise some $460 million to cover improvement works at Canefield and operational spares for Versailles and Garden of Eden. "If the equipment is not acquired urgently" he had warned "supply reliability and continuity problems will arise in Berbice."

In July the power company announced that it had approved a five year Development programme to "improve the quality of supply, to deal with anticipated growth in demand from existing electricity customers and to cater for supply, to deal with anticipated growth in demand from existing electricity customers and to cater for supply to currently un-served areas." The programme calls for new generation capacity and new transmission lines and stations among other improvements.

According to the Company "these improvements will take several years to take full effect. The programme is expected to cost approximately G$18,000 million over five years. It will be funded by a combination of investor-supplied equity, bank borrowing, Government funding and internationally generated funds." However the Company said "tenders will need to see that customers are paying the full economic cost of providing the services as prescribed in GPL's rate mechanism."

At the moment the Number Four Generating Set is supplying 5 megawatts while a Mobile Caterpillar Set is supplying 1.4 megawatts at Canefield. At Number 53 Village on the Corentyne one Caterpillar Set is supplying 1.4 megawatts of electricity. At Onverwagt one General Motors Engine is supplying 2 megawatts and one Caterpillar approximately 1.4 megawatts. The peak demand in East Berbice is approximately 12-plus megawatts.

President of the Berbice Chamber of Commerce and Development Association (BCC&DA), Ramesh Maraj this week told the media that 'the blackout situation was sickening. You don't know when you will be affected. Some business persons have stand-by generators but others do not. On many occasions a number of businesses have had to go without ice for an entire day. This situation is even more critical during the week-ends when there is no ice to run your business." According to Maraj "there is no improvement with GPL and the service being rendered."

Meanwhile an ongoing disconnection campaign has only added fury to an already uneasy situation. A number of consumers have complained about being disconnected after they had paid their bills, having to wait days for re-connection which they have to pay $3,000 for. Maraj called on the power company to compensate consumers for wrongful disconnection and for it to exhibit leniency by allowing consumers to produce bills paid. "A lot of business persons have complained about the embarrassment of being disconnected even though their bills were paid. You then have to wait three to four days before you are reconnected including standing in long lines at the Commercial Office in New Amsterdam to be attended to. Whenever there is a power outage the office also refuses to do any business and to collect monies from consumers" he lamented.

However, the daily load-shedding and line maintenance activities still continue to affect households, businesses, education, transportation and all spheres of activity in East and West Berbice with no sign of relief in sight.