May saw 34 blackouts in the Berbice area, the worst thus far in the year for the power company. There were 17 blackouts in May, last year.Since the year began, there have been an estimated 120 power outages, compared to 64 during the same period last year.Branch manager of Guyana Power and Light, Ayube Bacchus said that the company has tried to clear the transmission lines and network.“We are working on the plan itself to ascertain what is happening”.He added that some technical glitches “which should not have been there” were found but have been cleared up. This past week, he said, one of the five-megawatt generators at Canefield was “taken down to do maintenance and we used that opportunity to scrutinise those circuits as well. We did find some areas that needed fixing and we have fixed them.”It is quite a challenge for the company’s outdoor transmission and distribution network crews whenever there are ‘trips’ in the system, triggering blackouts.Skeldon Sugar Factory, he noted,NFL Cheap Jerseys, is generating power to the Berbice grid. During the off- crop season, as much as 4MW is generated. During the grinding season, he said,Jerseys NFL Cheap, “6.7MW are generated”.? The company was scheduled to generate 10 megawatts.He lauded the efforts of his outdoor technical crews who work in extreme weather at times to get their jobs done “and ensure power is restored in the shortest possible time”.The generating network extends from Bygeval to Moleson Creek and the electricity generating load, he said, is “growing in Berbice”. At present, the peak demand is 18MW.”He added that the blackouts being experienced cannot be blamed on generation shortfall but trips in the system and that the time taken to “put back the system online” can be tedious and time- consuming.“When we get a shut- down, we come back online and we leave no area out, even though it may take some time to get there. We re- power all the areas because we have the capacity to generate.”If there are blackouts during the night, he noted, it becomes more complicated to put the system back together.The Branch manager said that he understands the customers’ frustrations with the blackouts “but it is fixable and we can do it but it takes some time and we apologise for those irritating spells of outages”.He added that the company has increased its capacity in Berbice even though “we can meet the peak [demands] adequately”. By the end of the year, he said, that at least three megawatts in the system “will be restored to cater for the increased demand in December.Recently, too, the 5MW Generator at Canefield was re- commissioned and put back online. “Very shortly we will commission it on Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO)”.Canefield,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, he added, as it is now,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, “we have restored that capacity to what it used to be– 11 MW”. The fleet of Caterpillar Engines, he said, is always on standby to be used during emergencies,Cheap NFL Jerseys From China, “to give support in the system, during the peak, if and when required”.Budget cutsBacchus noted that Berbicians would not see the impact of the budget cuts in Parliament “right away”. “It is not an instantaneous thing…but it can have impact on us.”Use of fuel,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, he said, is one crucial area in which the company would pay much attention to cushion the effects of the cuts”.