Steps to ensure the entire country has access to electricity have been on the front burner for quite some time and as a result investments have been continuous in this area. The most evident accomplishment in this area is the coming into operation of the new sub-stations at Vreed-en- Hoop and Edinburgh, Region Three.
The completion of the load assignment to the four sources has resulted in a vast improvement in GPL’s ability to ensure an adequate voltage.
Consumers, particularly on the lower reaches of the West Coast would have noticed the improvement.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, GPL’s Board Chairman, Winston Brassington and CEO Bharat Dindyal at the Edinburgh sub-station where they got a closer look at the operating systems.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, GPL’s Board Chairman, Winston Brassington and CEO Bharat Dindyal visited the new sub-stations at Vreed En Hoop and Edinburgh where they checked on their operations.
PM Hinds emphasised that the new substations cater for the rapid growth in demand on the West Coast. He explained that this growth resulted in the feeders becoming over loaded.
The new arrangement has also released West Demerara from its heavy dependence on a single 13.8Kv circuit from Garden of Eden. GPL now has the ability to restore power rapidly to the West Coast if there is an incident.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and GPL executives at the New sub- station at Vreed-En-Hoop, Region 3.
It was pointed out that a period of testing was completed by GPL prior to the systems being functional. While there is further fine tuning to be done on the new feeders, particularly to balance the load, this would be done in 2013.
PM Hinds noted that the upgrade programme has another 12 months and involves the installation of seven sub-stations.
Dindiyal outlined that residents in La Retraite to Free and Easy, West Bank Demerara are being powered by the Garden of Eden station; La Retraite to Versailles by the Versailles Power station, Vreed en Hoop to Windsor Forest by the new Vreed- en- Hoop sub-station, Windsor Forest to Edinburg by the new Edinburg sub-station and Edinburg to Roden Rust also by the Edinburg sub-station.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds being acquainted with the computerizsd control systems at both the Vreed-en-Hoop and Edinburg sub- stations.
He said the situation now has vastly improved from what obtained before. Dindyal recalled that prior to the upgrade of the systems, it was said that consumers on the West Demerara were left at the mercy of the link at Garden of Eden and whenever there was a problem between Crane and Garden of Eden the entire West Demerara was affected.
Dindyal posited that with the new systems power will be stabilised on the West Demerara. Apart from the Vreed-en-Hoop and Edinburg sub-stations others are being installed at Golden Grove on the East Bank, Georgetown, New Sophia, Good Hope and Columbia on the East Coast.
This US $42M project is expected to be completed by September 2013.
Brassington acknowledged that the operationalsation of the two substations is timely since Christmas is fast approaching, and emphasised that the expected benefits to consumers would improved reliability and stability. “We are now linked to Kingston where the power will come from so this will allow us to turn off Leonora and Versailles and have those simply be back-up,” he explained. He added that GPL is moving from using diesel to heavy fuel oil and as a result the agency will save on fuel cost.
Brassington expressed appreciation to the government for its support in the project which has been vital in the improvement of GPL’s transmission stations and making GPL ready to deal with hydropower when it materialises by the end of 2016. From this GPL will also be able to send power to Parika and Skeldon.
While reliability and stability of the systems are being enhanced, focus is also being placed on ensuring the availability of an integrated 69KV system spanning from Berbice to Essequibo.