Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) is currently investigating what caused an “abnormal” electrical discharge that led to an explosion at its Kingston One Power plant, resulting in power outages in Demerara and Berbice on Friday.

According to a GPL statement, at approximately 09:40 hrs on Friday, a switchgear at the Kingston One Power Plant was taken out of service after an abnormal electrical discharge on the Number Four

Generator circuit breaker and a resulting explosion.

“On account of this, two of our Transformers at the Kingston Substation experienced a disturbance, which resulted in the sudden loss of approximately 22 Megawatts of generation.

The sudden loss of generation triggered a cascading effect, resulting in all other plants going offline, disrupting service to customers in Demerara and Berbice,” the company explained.

GPL said incremental restoration along with a preliminary investigation commenced immediately and at approximately 09:54 hrs the first area in Demerara was repowered. Restoration efforts continued until all areas in Demerara and Berbice were repowered at approximately 16:18 hrs. Currently, an investigation to determine the root cause of the activities that occurred is ongoing, GPL added.