GPL targeting power grid squatters
-residents risk losing all with illegal connections By Johann Earle
Stabroek News
January 15, 2004

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A web of intrigue: Illegal connections atop a utility pole in North Sophia. (Ken Moore photo)

The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) is in consultation with its lawyers to decide on a plan to crack down on persons making illegal connections to utility poles, a practice which robs it of revenue and poses a threat to life.

GPL's Public Relations Officer, Marjorie Chester, told Stabroek News that the problem is one that engages the company's attention on a daily basis. Not only is it hazardous, she said, the practice is unfair to other customers.

GPL has a department that is focused on losses resulting from the illegal connections, Chester said, adding that the company has considerably reduced commercial losses and will deal with the problem as situations arise.

She spoke during a tour for members of the media yesterday to three of the areas most affected by the illegal connections: North Sophia, Sparendaam and Goedverwagting on the East Coast Demerara.

While at these locations, this newspaper observed that many of the illegally connected wires ran across trenches from posts and were buried beneath roads. Some of them were also in water, inviting electric shocks and possibly electrocution.
Miguel Kellman of GPL shows reporters an illegal connection to a house in Goedverwagting on the East Coast Demerara. (Ken Moore photo)

Stabroek News observed that the wires that ran from the poles were sub-divided and distributed to residents in the area. And a GPL technician who was present also made this observation.

"We also get reports of low voltage in the areas with the illegal connections," he said.

Stabroek News understands that some of the connections smoke and spark and sometimes residents have to warn passers-by about live wires.

Miguel Kellman, a senior design engineer at GPL, said that the connections are not only illegal but also dangerous.

He said too that the size of the cables used makes the connections all the more hazardous, as those cables may not be able to withstand the load of current running from the poles.

He explained that if the load exceeds the thermal limit of the conductor, the wire might begin to burn. He said that when this happens the result would be a feedback to the transformer and legitimate customers would be affected. "When we have transformers going out on a steady basis, we know that there is illegal activity going on," Kellman said.

He said that legitimate customers in the affected areas suffer from low voltage and this is a result of the tampering of the wires and connections on the utility pole.

Many of the illegal connections were gnarled and twisted and looked like spiders' webs. Some of the cables were joined with insulation tape which had lost its adhesiveness, thereby exposing live conductors.

At Sparendaam and Goedverwagting, intricate networks of wires protruded from the utility poles and these were further distributed to residences. Reporters observed that some of these wires ran under bridges and in the trenches. Kellman said that if the conductor became exposed in the water, it could prove disastrous for persons or animals in the water.

In some areas, it surmised that the unavailability of electricity might be the cause for the persons engaging in the illegal connections. Speaking to residents in the North Sophia area, Kellman said they should come together and present a map of the area to the GPL so that the best arrangement for them in terms of cost per customer could be worked out. But before this can be done the area has to be surveyed by the Ministry of Housing and Water, according to Chester.

She said that her company is taking a "frontal" approach to the matter, "but as fast as we disconnect they reconnect." Kellman also told residents of Sparendaam and Goedverwagting that they needed to give GPL a map of the area so that a plan can be designed for electrification.

In justifying the actions of residents with regard to the illegal connections, one man said: "We have children and they have to study. I feel that it is time that they give we current. It is hard."

Another said that about 90 people live in the area and that the government should try to provide them with electricity, because all of them have transports for their land.

Another resident of the area said that some of them have been there for over 15 years and that they are willing to pay the connection fees to GPL for electricity services. They said too that they have children who are preparing to write exams and who would have had to study in the dark were it not for the illegal connections.

Back in October, GPL executives said that the company was embarking on a 'house by house' campaign to catch those persons who steal electricity and to carry out a review of all customers.

General Manager of GPL, Robin Singh, said that a survey done indicated that 18,000 customers recorded zero consumption, although they were using the company's electricity. He said that the survey had found too that 6,000 meters had malfunctioned or were tampered with and that the company was moving to correct the situation.

According to the Electricity Sector Reform Act of 1999, a person who generates, stores, transmits, transforms, distributes, furnishes, sells, resells or otherwise supplies electricity to any person, premises or area will be guilty of an offence unless he is authorised to do so by a licence or an exemption granted pursuant to the Act.

It states too: "A person found guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable upon summary conviction to a fine of $100,000 and to imprisonment for a term of six months; and if the offence of which he is convicted is continued after conviction, he shall be guilty of a further offence and liable to a fine of $20,000 for every day on which the offence is continued, and the minister shall take such steps and employ such persons as may be necessary to forcibly or otherwise enter upon, seize and take possession and cease the operations of any works utilised by such person for the unauthorized generation, storage, transmission, distribution, furnishing, sale, resale or other supply of electricity."