The Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) expects the frequency and severity of power outages to be “significantly alleviated” by the middle of 2027.
GPL Chief Executive Officer Kesh Nandlall gave the timeline during an appearance on the Starting Point podcast, where he acknowledged public frustration over persistent outages but said the utility is confronting unprecedented growth in electricity demand alongside an aging and heavily burdened network.
According to Nandlall, GPL’s current plan anticipates that the full 300 MW of power from the first phase of the Gas-to-Energy project at Wales will be available by around June 2027.
Asked directly whether this means Guyana should be finished with the current level of blackouts by then, Nandlall said the situation should be considerably improved.
“Well, it should be significantly alleviated,” he said.
He cautioned, however, that consumers should not interpret that as meaning power interruptions will disappear entirely.
“If somebody hits a pole, if we have to do maintenance work, because we don’t truly have a redundant system as yet…you are still going to have minimal interruptions,” Nandlall explained.
He said sections of the network will occasionally have to be taken out of service for emergency and planned maintenance, while accidents and other incidents affecting infrastructure will continue to cause interruptions.
“You will still have some amount of interruption, but not to this extent,” he said.
The Gas-to-Energy project is being commissioned in stages. Government’s current schedule provides for the first gas turbine to begin delivering approximately 57 MW by the end of 2026. The remaining gas turbines are expected to follow during the first quarter of 2027, with full combined-cycle operations and the plant’s 300 MW capacity targeted for June 2027.
Nandlall said one of the principal reasons GPL is struggling with outages is the extraordinary increase in electricity consumption over the past six years.
Peak demand stood at approximately 125 MW in 2020 but has now climbed to around 255 MW, he said. Last year alone, peak demand was about 221 MW.
“So, that’s a significant growth on the system, and we have not significantly changed the distribution system,” Nandlall said.
The increased demand has overloaded sections of the distribution network and put transformers under greater pressure.
At the same time, GPL’s customer base has expanded from approximately 201,000 customers in 2020 to around 250,000.
Nandlall attributed the increase to rapid expansion in housing, manufacturing, hospitality and other areas of the economy.
“Economic growth brings with it the need for energy, and that requires investment. Investment in the power sector takes time,” he said.
GPL separately reported earlier this month that demand had reached approximately 257 MW, with the company saying increased consumption was placing substantial pressure on feeders and other parts of the distribution system.
Nandlall said approximately US$800 million is currently being invested in electricity infrastructure that should progressively ease the strain on the system.
“It will not solve all the problems, but it will alleviate the problem significantly when these infrastructures are in place,” he said.
The work is not limited to adding generating capacity. GPL is constructing and upgrading substations, transmission lines and more than 200 kilometres of distribution feeders to allow additional electricity to reach heavily populated and rapidly developing areas.
Several projects are expected to be completed before the end of 2026, while others are scheduled for completion during the first and second quarters of 2027.
Among the ongoing works are new substations at Chateau Margot and Enmore and an expansion of the Columbia Substation. Government reported this month that those works had reached approximately 60 per cent completion.
Nandlall also said GPL is installing a new double-circuit electricity cable approximately 75 feet beneath the Demerara River bed.
The underground cable will provide another pathway for electricity to move between sections of the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System, creating greater redundancy if one part of the network encounters a problem.
