Europe 1 with AFP 4:28 p.m., August 9, 2022
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, the inhabitants of the Guyanese coast were deprived of electricity for several hours.
According to EDF, "the safety of two high voltage lines" caused the failure.
“The origin of the security of the is under investigation”, specifies the company.
The municipalities on the coast of Guyana were deprived of electricity for several hours overnight from Monday to Tuesday, the prefecture said on Tuesday, while EDF is looking for the origin of the breakdown.
"A break in the high voltage power supply this morning led to a power outage in Guyana, located mainly on the coast," said the prefect during a press briefing on Tuesday morning.
The majority of the nearly 300,000 Guyanese live on the coast.
By mid-morning, electricity had been restored to all homes, according to EDF, which explains in a press release that the "cut follows the securing of the two high-voltage lines connected to the Petit-Saut hydroelectric power station".
"The origin of the safety of the two lines is under investigation", assures EDF.
Battle over a new power plant
"The most sensitive consumption sites with emergency capacities have not been impacted, in particular hospitals, the airport or the port", specified the prefect.
The Ministries of Energy Transition and Overseas France wished to recall on this occasion "the government's support for the EDF power plant project called 'Larivot'", according to them "essential to the security of energy supply. electricity in Guyana due to the aging of the existing Dégrad-des-Cannes thermal power plant".
The administrative court of Guyana canceled in mid-July the building permit granted in 2020 to EDF for the construction of a power plant by the sea in Larivot, near Cayenne, a new episode in the intense legal battle which is being played out around of this project which tears the ecologists and EDF, supported by the government.