Govt. unable to pronounce at end of blackouts – AG Nandlall
Kaieteur News – The Government is currently unable to articulate when the recent flood of blackouts that plague the country would stop, but the phenomenon is, in part, behind the drive to have a diverse power generation base using the highly rotated gas-to-shore project.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall.
This is according to Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, who tried this past week in his ‘Issues in the News’ broadcast to mourn Guyana Power and Light’s (GPL) production and distribution capacity issues.
According to Nandlall, despite the upgrades currently being made by Trinidadian and other contractors, “I do not know when it will stop and I say that as part of government. But we are working towards it. ”
To this end, Nandlall asked “that is why we follow so many different routes to provide power; cheap, renewable and fossil fuel-free power. ”
He asked, “That’s why we’re promoting solar, we’re promoting hydro, we’re promoting wind and we’re pushing the gas project to shore.”
Insisting, “you can’t blame us for not trying,” the Attorney General also lamented that the power company did not maintain its systems that have sufficiently led to the current status quo in recent years.
“There has been no maintenance on the transmission lines for the last four years,” he said, revealing President Irfaan Ali.
“There are currently Trinidadian contractors and a host of contractors working to service and maintain the neglected lines for the past four years and that is the hallmark of APNU + AFC’s term in Government; all sectors of this country have been neglected. ”
According to Nandlall, the opposition instead is now trying to find only fault with the proposed gas-to-shore project, among other initiatives, to reform and transform the country.
He asked optimistically “the upgrades currently being made will be completed shortly and some normality will be restored in the electricity sector.”
President Ali, speaking at a swearing-in ceremony at the President’s Office last Monday, said, “I only made a comment two days ago that GPL did not maintain any of its facilities for almost four consecutive years . ”
The lines emphasized, “they were not maintained, their system was not maintained” and “today we have to correct that.”
Empowered by the Public Utilities Commission Act, the President said the PUC is required, among other things, to ensure that all public utilities maintain its property and equipment, “in such a service-enabling condition adequate, efficient, non-discriminatory, affordable and safe. ”
On this note, he highlighted concerns in GPL, which had recently come to his attention.
President Ali has since reiterated his government’s commitment to supporting the work of the PUC and to expanding and improving the quality of public services provided to citizens.
The PUC’s work, he said, is expected to intensify as Guyana enters a new phase in its development, “one that has already witnessed the liberalization of the telecommunications sector and plans are underway to boost power generation and water supply.”