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By Gary Eleazar“They are acting out of complete and total ignorance…We can’t put it anyway better, they are totally ignorant of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL).”These were the words of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPL, Bharrat Dindyal, who yesterday in an exclusive interview with Kaieteur News fired back at critics of the power company.(CEO) of GPL, Bharrat Dindyal“It is especially unfortunate, the aspersions emanating from the Alliance For Change camp. I don’t know who is advising them, they are so astonishingly wrong that it begs the question why aren’t they trying to get facts, why aren’t they trying to understand what is going on before talking.”No taxpayer giftAccording to Dindyal, among the incorrect notions being peddled by the combined opposition is that the money that had been transferred to the power company by government through the budget is sourced solely from taxes in the Consolidated Funds and considered “gifts.”Dindyal said that the monies represent loans that government has sourced for GPL through agencies such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB),NFL Jerseys From China, Venezuela under the Petrocaribe arrangement and China.The CEO said the power company does not have to approach Parliament for money but rather could raise the money through increased tariffs. He explained, however, that each time GPL indicates a willingness to increase its tariffs, government says “no, we will make money available.”This money, according to Dindyal, is made available by government accessing concessionary loans as the company by itself would not be able to source the money commercially, given its financial position.He added that even if the company were to source the money commercially it would be at 8 per cent or 10 per cent as against the one or two percent under the concessional loans that government sources.The loans, he said, have to be and are repaid by the power company.“The concessional loans are coming in and allowing us to invest in capital projects to reduce costs and to reduce losses importantly.”This repayment, he stated, is reflected in the company’s annual reports each year.Dindyal said the 2012 audited statements have been completed, and the completed annual report will soon be finalised and tabled in the National Assembly.He pointed out that in the years where the power company records a deficit, “it doesn’t make sense to borrow money from government to repay government.”“What we do is defer the payments; we accrue the interest and defer the payments so that the money coming from government goes straight to customers or capital projects.”FuelResponding to the fact that the AFC continuously makes reference to the subsidy transferred to the power company last year,Cheap NFL Jerseys Online, Dindyal said that $6B went straight into the purchase of fuel.“In 2012 we went to Government for operational support,Cheap Stitched Jerseys, we said that fuel was a burden to carry, we couldn’t carry it…We had an $8B increase in fuel from 2011 to 2012 and Parliament approved $6B.”Dindyal said that for this year the power company has asked for just $1B, taking into account the fact that the fuel prices are projected to reduce.“This year we asked for $1B in operational support, not $6B like we did last year.”According to Dindyal, this is a reality seemingly not being recognized by the critics, “last year they approved $6B in operational support and this year we went for $1B…$5B less.”Commercial LossesOn the matter of the company failing to reduce its technical and commercial losses over the years, Dindyal said that through a loan from the IDB at least US$6.5M was put into the Unserved Areas Electrification Programme (UAEP) which saw the construction of networks for 20,000 customers, with the first phase of the project finishing one year ahead of time.This programme targeted specifically the sore issue of commercial losses such as massive electricity theft.He said that upon the early completion of the IDB-funded project, the Guyana Government decided not to wait and went ahead and funded Phase II of the project.“Government basically moved ahead and provided networks for almost 22,000 customers.”Dindyal said that recognizing that the government had already taken on a significant portion of the works, it approached the IDB and said “the resources are there so why not dedicate some to loss reduction.”The resources were available from the IDB, given that government went ahead and funded the second phase of the UAEP.He said that GPL approached the power company with a view to having the money diverted toward investing in technical loss reduction.Dindyal explained that commercial losses include electricity theft and losses through defective meters among other factors.One such factor is the fact that the company had been using an old billing system, “with people playing around with accounts in the main system…so it had billing issues, we had defective meters and you have electricity theft.”Dindyal said that the IDB told GPL that it would also dedicate about US$6.5M to non-technical losses and a study was done by consultants out of the United Kingdom.The consultant mapped out an investment programme for the company.“That programme said that you need to invest in metering… need to invest in capacity building.”He said that the capacity building related to allowing the power company to be able to raid areas where there was stealing of electricity, along with the fact that the old billing system had to be replaced.Dindyal said that US$2.7M was expended on putting in place the new billing system that has been in use since May 2010.“We equipped six crews with equipment and vehicles to raid in communities where people have been stealing wholesale, we introduced the ITRON meter with the financing from IDB.”These investments, according to Dindyal, saw losses by the power company being reduced from 45 per cent to 30 per cent.“That’s why we made that progress, because there was investment coming from the IDB.”Technical LossesAccording to Dindyal, having managed to reduce the commercial losses drastically, the IDB then indicated that GPL had moved to the point of having a system where “demand is rising constantly and you are pushing that increased power through the same system.”This, Dindyal said, caused the technical losses to increase not just incrementally but exponentially.According to the GPL Chief Executive, investing in the system to curb technical losses had been 30 years in the making,Wholesale Jerseys Outlet, and it was not a lack of will or expertise but rather the resources to do it.“I don’t know who are the people advising these parties and how they understand these issues…For the first time in the history of GEC/GPL we got US$42M to tackle technical loss reduction.”Dindyal was referring to the upgrade to the transmission and distribution,Jerseys Cheap NFL, funded by the Chinese.He said that the greatest amount of technical loss is in the low voltage network in the 120/240 volt lines. These lines that run across the country, account for just about seven percent of the technical losses.TOTAL IGNORANCE“The investment to completely reduce this to industry standard is about US$60M. These people are totally misinformed…nothing that they say makes sense. When they speak of bad management or the fact that the company has not been reducing losses,Wholesale China Jerseys Free Shpping, it’s not the willpower to do it, it’s not expertise to do it, it’s investment which they are cutting.”The company’s CEO said “if these people sit down to understand what the issues are and what they are doing…I mean they are acting out of complete and total ignorance …we can’t put it anyway better, they are totally ignorant of the GPL.”“These naysayers have been spouting various criticisms with the expectation that persons would believe that they probably know something… they know nothing!”