5,000 cases of electricity theft in 12 months -GPL

Bharat DindyalGeorgetown: Due to persistent electricity theft, the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) is looking at a technological approach to address the challenge, according to Chief Executive Officer, Bharrat Dindyal.

The utility company noted that 5,000 cases of electricity theft were detected during the past year. However, Dindyal noted that incidence of theft among new consumers have reduced with the advent of the prepaid meter.
“There are many ways we can keep an eye on you by using the prepaid platform and that is why I think people are trying to hack into that system,” he said.

Nevertheless, Dindyal said there are plans to launch a pilot programme financed by the Inter-American Development Bank. “This will not only look at the network design using a more secure network sometimes called a fraud-proof network but we are looking at introducing the latest in metering technology something called an Automatic Metering Infrastructure which is more advanced than the prepaid that we are using,”