With financing from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Caribbean Investment Facility (CIF) of the European Union (EU), the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) is advancing its efforts to improve operation. As part of this, the power coming is looking to take full advantage of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software system.
Through this system, GPL is well-poised to collect data from field device and controllers in the field and send this data to its main central control unit, which in turn manages and controls the data.
But there is a need for technical SCADA experts to ensure efficiency. In this regard, the power company has shared its need for a SCADA engineer, SCADA operations analyst, and SCADA technician, all positions it advertised for this past weekend.
However, the SCADA aspect of its improvement works is a mere part of an elaborate plan to take the power company to a level where it can reduce losses and increase efficiency.
The cost of the project, which was announced back in 2014, amounts to some US52.7M, with the IDB and EU each covering half of the cost. The funding, it was revealed, was intended to finance outsourced support to senior management to upgrade skills and implement best practices and a corporate development plan to upgrade key areas of the power company and infrastructure investments to help reduce losses.
Once fully implemented, the various aspects of the project will help, among other things, to reduce electricity theft and leakages due to faulty equipment, a challenge that GPL has been faced with for a number of years.
