Berbicians chafe under power outages

Several parts of Berbice suffered an all-day power cut yesterday as part of planned works by GPL and the outage was extended after “unexpected challenges” during the electricity restoration phase.

The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) said that complications developed during the execution of the scheduled works. Chief Executive Officer at GPL Kesh Nandlall told Stabroek News “They had …developed some issues after, we did some major work. We upgraded a substation, commissioned a 60 megawatt MVA transformer substation. That’s what we did today, plus we did some additional work on the L21 structures, improving, doing some maintenance of the transmission line, and then we did some, we had to do some work on the Trafalgar solar farm, which is going to be commissioned soon. So a number of activities occurred today. It took some extra time to do and that’s why we had several outages in Berbice, which we had advertised before. However, we developed an issue later on this afternoon, where we had some imbalances, which we had to correct, because one piece of the, feeder burn”.

A section of Albion took a longer time than expected to be reconnected.

Earlier in the day, GPL had issued several updates. The first stated that “Works are ongoing at the Canefield Substation where GPL Inc. is working on the interconnection and commissioning of a new 60 MVA Transformer. These activities include installing line hardware to connect the Trafalgar Solar Farm to the national grid and maintaining the high- and low-voltage networks, including transmission lines and distribution feeders”.

Another update read “Customers between Moleson Creek and Number 68 Village, please be informed that the service interruption being experienced is due to a feeder trip. All efforts are being made to restore power within the shortest possible time. Additional information will be provided in a subsequent post. We apologize for the inconvenience caused”.

A separate notice indicated that power was expected to return by 17:00 hrs. By that time, more than 60 persons had taken to the comments section under GPL’s Facebook post, with one user, Priya Pritamber Ganesh, stating “Sections in Berbice are having voltage issues- Wellington Park Corentyne, to be exact”.

Another user, Afia Simon, commented “Yall does really over do it with we a know stewwwwwwwwww”.

A third, Fawaz Harry, added “If hopeless was a company”.

A resident, who preferred to remain unnamed, also expressed frustration, telling this newspaper “Blackout started at 9:59 am and didn’t return until 8 pm. That’s 10 hours without electricity This is not the first time we encounter power outage a lot here till it’s becoming a norm I swear, If GPL is doing maintenance or if it’s an emergency, they really need to handle it better. The constant delays, wrong timeframes, and long blackouts are frustrating and unfair to the customers who have to deal with the heat, the inconvenience, and the damage it cause.”

In at least two advisories posted to its page, a few days ago GPL stated “On Tuesday, December 2, 2025, Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) will continue interconnection and commissioning work on the new 60 MVA Transformer at the Canefield Substation. These activities include installing line hardware to connect the Trafalgar Solar Farm to the national grid and maintaining the high- and low-voltage networks, including transmission lines and distribution feeders”.

As a result, customers in the following areas will experience an interruption in the power supply as follows:

• Onverwagt to Ithaca, West Coast Berbice – 10:00 – 14:00 hrs

• Canje to Albion, New Amsterdam & Stanleytown, and Lochaber to Kortberaad – 10:00 – 16:00 hrs.

These upgrades are part of GPL’s ongoing efforts to improve the delivery of reliable electricity to our customers in Berbice they stated.

In a statement last night, GPL apologized for the extended  outage stating that ‘the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) today advanced interconnection and commissioning activities on the new 60 MVA Transformer at the Canefield Substation. In addition, maintenance works were carried out on the L21 Transmission Line, and additional medium-voltage upgrades were completed in New Amsterdam. Work was also done to allow GPL to interconnect the 4MWp Trafalgar Solar Farm to the national grid, which is expected to be commissioned soon.

To facilitate these critical upgrades, customers in several areas experienced planned service interruptions. Restoration efforts commenced incrementally at approximately 17:00 hrs.

During restoration, GPL teams encountered unexpected challenges with the red phase cable supplying power to the Canefield Substation, resulting in the loss of power to several feeders at around 18:00hrs.

Affected areas included:

Republic Road & Strand – New Amsterdam

Canje to Auchlyne

Main Road New Amsterdam to Kortberaad

GPL teams immediately commenced remedial works to rectify the situation.  Incremental restoration commenced at approximately 19:57hrs.

This process was still ongoing last night.

GPL apologized for the inconvenience caused.