WITH the hot season pushing the national grid to record levels, Guyana Power and Light (GPL) is renewing its call for households to build a few simple habits into their daily routine to conserve and reduce electricity bills.
The push comes as the country’s power demand hits new highs. Guyana’s electricity consumption has nearly doubled in six years, and the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System recorded a fresh peak of just over 242 megawatts, up from about 221 megawatts a year ago.
It has been reported that August, September and October will be the hottest stretch of the year, with air-conditioning units and other appliances driving the heaviest use between 7 pm and 9 pm each evening.
Planners expect peak demand to keep climbing towards roughly 266 megawatts before the season is out.
Part of the strain is simply growth: GPL’s customer base has expanded from around 204,000 connections in 2020 to about 250,000 today, alongside a boom in housing and commercial activity.
But conservation at the household level still matters, not just for the grid, but also for the individual bill.
Two of GPL’s public-education materials lay out exactly where the easiest savings are hiding: The refrigerator, and everything else left plugged in around the house.
MASTER YOUR FRIDGE — SAVE UP TO 20%
Unlike a stove or an iron, the refrigerator never switches off. GPL notes that it can account for as much as a fifth of a household’s total electricity bill on its own, which also means it’s one of the biggest opportunities for savings.
The utility’s guidance comes down to six rules:
1. Set it right: Keep the fridge compartment between 3°C and 5°C, and the freezer at −18°C. Anything colder just burns extra power for no benefit.
2. Test the door seal: Close the door on a strip of paper — if it slides out easily, the gasket needs replacing.
3. Let food cool first: Putting hot pots straight into the fridge forces the compressor to work harder. Let food cool on the counter and refrigerate within two hours.
4. Open it less: Every minute the door stays open adds minutes of extra running time to bring the temperature back down.
5. Give it air: Leave about five centimetres of space behind and beside the unit, and dust the back coils twice a year.
6. Defrost, and keep it three-quarters full: Ice buildup thicker than a coin wastes energy, while a fuller fridge, not overstuffed, actually holds its cold better than a near-empty one.
GPL says running the fridge right, on its own, can cut its energy use by up to 20 per cent.
UNPLUG WHAT YOU’RE NOT USING — SAVE 10%
The second habit targets what energy planners call “phantom load” — the power that chargers, televisions, microwaves and other electronics quietly draw all day even when they’re switched off but still plugged in.
GPL’s campaign illustrates the point with a typical household’s daily usage curve: Consumption is lowest overnight, rises with the morning routine, dips through midday, and spikes sharply in the early evening, precisely the 7 pm-to-9 pm window officials have flagged as the grid’s most stressed period.
Trimming the idle draw from unused appliances, GPL says, can lower a household’s bill by about 10 per cent, with the biggest impact falling right around that evening peak.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Neither habit requires new equipment or major expense, just a change in routine. GPL frames the fridge rules and the unplugging habit as two of the fastest ways a household can bring its bill down: up to a fifth from the fridge, and a tenth more from unused appliances, adding up to savings approaching a third of what a home might otherwise spend.
With demand climbing and the hottest months of the year still ahead, GPL has encouraged customers to treat these habits as a first step rather than a one-time fix.
Customers can find more conservation guidance, view rates, or reach GPL’s Customer Care Call Centre at 592-226-2600 or via WhatsApp at 592-608-9090.
