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Persistent blackouts plagued Guyana’s small population prior to 2015. When APNU+AFC took office, worldwide advertising was done and a power generation study commenced. With that road map it was recognized that “about 10 to 15 megawatts of “new power” was needed every year and that is what the APNU+AFC achieved.
“We were able to do 63.9% of new power” Hon. David Patterson, MP, recently stated in an exclusive interview with Credible Sources. He added that with the due diligence done by “Ernst and Young” a worldwide reputable company that vetted an expert from Jamaica, commissioned to investigate Guyana’s power grid. The expert found that it was in terrible shape.
The former Minister of Infrastructure (Ministry of Works), MP Patterson, added that “his very first report provided to the board said there were seventeen (17) reasons that could cause our grid to fail.” He said that in any modern country that has a good, reliable grid, there should be no more than three or four reasons unless there is a catastrophic occasion like an explosion or earthquake.” Patterson explained that, with regards to low voltage, the expert proposed to look at the seventeen (17) issues one at a time so that concentration could be placed on building alternative lines to support the power grid system.
Patterson, a trained engineer, said, “When we came into office in 2015, there was one power cable from Vreed-en-Hoop to Kingston, and every time a boat would drop anchor, it would break the power cable, and we would have extensive blackouts.” Patterson said to address the issues, different alternative routes were installed as protection for the system so that if a line from Kingston to Sophia tripped, it could have been contained to the area.
Patterson said, too, that the expert recommended that the services were not feasible to outsource, so in-house training commenced. “Staff were then sent to small islands like Trinidad and Jamaica, and these were line maintenance staff who were now able to do the maintenance on high voltage lines,” he said. The former Minister said in 2015 that the new board, headed then by Robert Badal, found that GPL was procuring breakers, line hardware, isolators, and meters of poor quality and that GPL was accepting the minimum quality of equipment.
Patterson said, “Everybody in Guyana knows that a meter goes bad two to three years after GPL installs it, then they complain, but meters are meant to last 10 to 15 years minimum.” Patterson expressed as well that the PPP did a study on the Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Bharrat Dindyal, through the board that was headed by Winston Brassington on his stewardship at GPL at the end of 2014, and the report said he was a poor manager. Under his over four-year stewardship, GPL lost 150 million dollars of equipment due to poor maintenance. He was hiring containerized Caterpillar engines from MACORP, which were too expensive to maintain.
The board recommended to then Prime Minister Samuel Hinds that his contract should not be renewed and that he be fired. Patterson said when he came into office, the report was sent to him. Dindyal’s contract was on a month-to-month basis, so if the PPP, which has very low standards, had no faith in him, then it was a no-brainer. Dindyal was advised that the APNU+AFC did not have contractual obligations to him, and he was let go. When the PPP/C came to office in 2020, Bharrat Dindyal was brought back as CEO of GPL.
