Press Release

MEDIA RELEASE: DBIS Service Interruptions

14th May 2018

Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System service interruptions

Georgetown, Guyana: May 14, 2018: At approximately 18:07hrs on Friday, May 11, the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) experienced a short circuit on the L5 transmission line linking our Sophia and Kingston power stations.   In the absence of this link, approximately 35 Megawatts (MW) of capacity was suddenly unavailable to meet the peak demand.  The frequency drop could not be compensated through controlled load shedding, and a total outage was experienced.

Power restoration efforts began immediately with the first area being repowered at 18:29hrs. All areas were re-powered at approximately 20:29hrs.

Additionally, on Sunday, May 13 at 11:49hrs during maintenance activities on one of our 13.8 kV feeders, an incident resulted in the loss of generation from our 30.6 MW Kingston 2 Plant, causing system instability and total shutdown. During the incident, which is under investigation, one of our employees was badly burnt and is currently hospitalized. All areas within Demerara and Berbice were repowered by 13:11hrs.