In five months Power company chops 6,000 illegal hook-ups
Stabroek News
December 9, 2006
The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) says it has clamped down on 6,000 illegal connections over the last five months and the larger and more established businesses have been listed as chief culprits.
The company in a televised press conference yesterday calculated its commercial losses at $2.4B and stressed that losses via illegal connections and theft of electricity are "so phenomenal" that curbing such activities will become high profile and will continue to receive the highest priority.
A representative of the company's internal auditing department Samaroo Ramtahal said several reputable businesses have been found to be indulging in illegal extractions of power from the company's network and a number of such cases are being investigated by the police.
"Over the last three years we have replaced almost all the old electro-mechanical meters with electronic meters for large businesses, however tampering and illegal by-pass of these electronic meters and current transformers for this category of customers are widespread," he reiterated. The company said, too, that their ongoing investigations have revealed that a large number of these customers have tampered with security seals in current transformer enclosures, changed their connections and have disabled the meter conveniently, physically damaging it so that actual consumption is being under-recorded.
Additionally, GPL said based on field investigations it found out that more than 20,000 persons are illegally connected to its network using telephone wires, fish hooks, naked copper wires and speaker wires.
Ramtahal pointed to the company's ongoing investigations of a number of businesses in Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara where 95% of them were found to be receiving power by illegal means.
However, he said only 50 persons have been arrested and charged for tampering and stealing electricity from GPL and the company had adopted an approach where it called on those customers found guilty of the act and discussed with them the terms and conditions under which they could pay the monies they owe the power company.
However, Chief Executive Officer Bharat Dindial explained that many persons have been taking advantage of this position adopted by the company and have not been heeding their obligations.
"We try not to disrupt businesses, but you see when we meet with them and ask them to settle their account they see this as a sign of weaknesses of the company," he emphasized.
Ice and fishing businesses, hotels, restaurants, rice producers, bars, sawmills, furniture workshops, welding workshops and variety shops are those businesses which are creating a nightmare for the company as it strives to reduce its commercial losses.
Meanwhile, responding to a question on whether rates may be a contributory factor to electricity theft, Dindial pointed out that theft was instead a contributory factor to rising tariffs. "We are trying to reduce theft and losses and once this is achieved we project that from 2008 to 2011 tariffs could come down, but this is heavily dependent on a reduction of our losses," he insisted. Dindial urged the moving away from the perception that those persons in more difficult circumstances are more likely to steal electricity, as he re-emphasized that those who were in a better position to pay their electricity charges were the main defaulters.
It is in this vein that he unveiled the company's plan for the next four years in which the upgrading of metering installation and the replacement of additional meters are high priority.
Additionally, the power company head said plans are in store for the current billing system to be replaced with a state-of-the-art customer information system coupled with an expansion of the use of commercial and other intelligence to identify cases of electricity theft, corruption and manipulation. GPL, in the next four years envisages, too, aggressively targeting cases of electricity theft through its internal audit division which is working with five security teams and the Guyana Police Force.
Generation capacity
Meanwhile, the power company said it has secured an additional 10 megawatts of power from a Caterpillar rental unit and so deemed itself ready to meet the increased demand for the holiday season and further ahead, the Cricket World cup 2007 super eight matches to be played here.
Chairman, Ronald Alli said this temporary inflow of power will provide 4-6 months of sustainable power, "and in May 2007 our diesel plant at Skeldon will add an additional 10 megawatts of power on the national grid,". To date the company's capacity is 87.8 megawatts and according to its management, this is more than adequate capacity to deal with the increased demand for power throughout Christmas.
Dindial said the company is working with the Ministry of Tourism and other stakeholders to ensure that it will be ready for the games.
"Our normal peak for Christmas is 66.6 megawatts and by mid January the Christmas peak drops off and for the CWC demand we will use about 77 to 78 megawatts and so we have adequate capacity for CWC.
On the question of whether the company could handle any major breakdown during the games, Dindial said that its capacity was adequate. (Heppilena Ferguson)