Efforts are underway to resolve Bartica’s power problems

The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) has invested considerable effort in restoring a stable power supply in Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), following the unexpected failure of three power generation engines.

The town has been experiencing prolonged power outages over the past few days, disrupting residents’ daily lives and forcing many businesses to reduce operations.

Households also face the problem of unstable power supply.

When contacted on Tuesday, GPL executive management committee chairman Kesh Nandlall assured that engineers were working non-stop to speed up the restoration process.

The Bartika power plant, the main source of electricity for the town and its surrounding areas, suffered a simultaneous failure of three of the plant’s four engines, severely affecting power generation. Two of the engines were needed to meet power demand, while the other two served as backup units.

“There was a coupling issue on one of the engines which led to the problem and caused the other engines to be taken offline due to the surge in demand,” Nandlall explained.

As a result, only one engine is running in conjunction with the solar farm.

The inability of three key units to operate has reduced the generating capacity of the Bartica power plant, forcing the town to undergo scheduled service interruptions.

Nandlall promised that power supply would be restored to normal by Tuesday evening.
To stabilize the situation, he said a 1.5 MW Caterpillar engine has been installed and a 1.1 MW Cummins engine will be installed on Wednesday.

However, the power company said on Wednesday that despite the best efforts of our team, they were unable to get the Caterpillar engine back into operation last night due to an unexpected alignment issue with the alternator.

“The team worked until 2:00am this morning and made substantial progress. We expect to complete the work today and have the power plant’s engines operational to restore services to the township.

“In addition, we have a contractor on site assisting our team to complete repairs on other offline engines, which will provide backup generation capacity. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and want to assure customers that we are committed to restoring normal power supply to Bartica,” the power company said in a statement.

A four-hour service interval will be implemented in the town from Wednesday as three engines of the Bartica power plant are out of service.