The 69 KV submarine cable was severed over the weekend resulting in power outages in regions 4,5 and 6. The spate of power outages saw Guyanese voicing their concerns on social media about “another blackout”. 

According to the Guyana Power and Light Company, the cable was “severed” by what is suspected to be a ship’s anchor.  That cable which connects the Vreed-En-Hoop power plant to the Kingston Power Plant runs under the Demerara River. The power company in a release on Sunday said that the cable was examined on Saturday after which the damage was detected as it said efforts are currently underway to determine the full extent of the damage” to the submarine cable the power company said in its release. 

Vessel and severed submarine cable (GPL Photo)

Minister within the Public Works Ministry Deodat Indar told this publication that a full update on the situation would be available later today. This is not the first time a vessel has caused damage to the cable as the company said that it has “initiated several measures” along with the Maritime Administration Department to limit such incidents. According to GPL, these measures include a survey to determine and plot the location of the cable in the Demerara River, the updating of maritime charts to include the position of the cable; publication of maritime notices indicating the boundaries of the submarine cable; and the placement of warning signs and hazard lights at both ends of the cable. 

The company has also blamed outages on Sunday on what is said was a “system disturbance” around 10:32 hrs that affected the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS). This the company said was due to a fault at the Kingston Power Plant.