—VP Jagdeo says

As Guyana prepares to usher in the new year, Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, has reassured Guyanese that 2025 is slated to be a year free from energy woes.

Speaking at a Friday press conference of the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) of which he is the General Secretary, Dr. Jagdeo highlighted some key infrastructure developments in the sector, with the latest being a tender for a new 230KVA power line. With several projects already completed and more underway, Dr. Jagdeo emphasised that Guyana is well on its way to developing its smart grid.

Addressing a team of journalists at Freedom House, Dr. Jagdeo shared that the government is working on numerous projects to enhance Guyana’s energy sector. Recently, the country saw significant additions with the introduction of two powerships.

“We are adding about 200MW of capacity to the system. The transmission mains are still old; but now, given what happened last week when the powership sailed into the Demerara River and was connected to the grid a few nights ago…that has allowed us now to have 267MW of power installed. The demand in October was about 205MW, with peak demand now at about 200MW.”

According to Dr. Jagdeo, this means that the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) now has a reserve power of 67MW of energy. Moreover, this extra power aims to help prevent blackouts and support the US$200M tender for power line maintenance.

“We have another tender that should have been awarded by now. This is for about US$200 million to upgrade the current system, add more transformers, because many areas are seeing demand that exceeds the number of transformers available. This could result in load shedding, so we need to add more transformers, etc.

“We are spending about US$200 million to do that. So, a lot of measures are being put in place to upgrade the system and build a smart grid. Ultimately, we need to develop a smart grid for the country,” the Vice President explained.

While power line maintenance remains a priority, Dr. Jagdeo emphasised the government’s focus on completely developing the nation’s energy infrastructure. He explained that work is underway to implement new, stronger, and more capable power lines across the country, starting in regions 10 and 6.

“We have tendered for a 230KVA line to run from Georgetown all the way to Crabwood Creek. With us generating 500-600MW here, we need to move that, and the 69KVA line can’t carry that amount of power all the way to Berbice. We are doing the same now to take power to Linden, with a 230KVA line running from Georgetown to Linden, or from the East Bank to Linden,” he said.

Looking ahead, Dr. Jagdeo assured the public that the government anticipates better performance in the nation’s electricity.

“We don’t expect to have blackouts like we had before because of power shortages or availability. There may be blackouts associated with faults in the transmission system from time to time, such as a pole falling, but they should not be due to a lack of power,” he said.