TO be honest, we can cuss GPL, call it “GPHELL”, complain every time the lights go out and vent on social media until the current returns because when electricity becomes unreliable, the frustration is real — and extremely hot. But behind those outages is a much larger national challenge that cannot be reduced to a meme or a nickname.
Guyana’s electricity system is being stretched from several directions at once. El Niño conditions and unusually high temperatures have driven electricity use sharply upward as homes and businesses rely more heavily on air-conditioning and cooling systems.
Peak demand on the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System reached 242.64 megawatts in August, while thousands of new homes, hotels, commercial centres, factories and industrial operations continue to connect to a network that was never built for this scale of activity.
That is why President Dr. Irfaan Ali’s warning that the next six months will be critical should be understood in context. Generating units must be taken offline for mandatory maintenance and overhaul at a time when demand remains exceptionally high, and delaying those works can create even larger failures later. The President has also openly acknowledged that the present level of reliability is unacceptable, and that major investment is needed to correct weaknesses across generation, transmission and distribution.
What is equally important is what the Government is doing in response.
Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar has been consistently on the frontline of that work, visiting projects, meeting technical teams and publicly explaining where additional capacity is coming from, and how the grid is being strengthened. The Government is building approximately 425 kilometres of new transmission lines, while work is also advancing on new 69kV infrastructure and a stronger Kingston-Georgetown connection capable of moving substantially more power across the network.
At Wales, the Gas-to-Energy project is moving towards first generation, with the first 57-megawatt turbine expected to come online before the end of 2026, and the wider first phase designed to provide 300 megawatts. Minister Indar has repeatedly linked that project to the extraordinary growth in electricity demand, especially during the current heat and El Niño conditions.
The Government is also looking beyond generation. President Ali has said that close to US$800 million will be required over five years for transmission and distribution alone, while discussions are being pursued with international partners to accelerate that investment. At the same time, attention is being placed on GPL’s technical expertise, management systems, maintenance planning, and the ability to predict failures before they happen.
That is the part of the conversation that should not be lost when the lights go out.
None of this excuses poor performance. GPL must still communicate better, maintain equipment properly, and improve reliability, because households and businesses have every right to expect dependable electricity. But it is also fair to recognise that the system is being rebuilt while it is still being used, under record demand and difficult weather conditions.
Minister Indar and the wider Government, therefore, have a difficult job in front of them, but the scale of the work now underway shows that the problem is being treated with the urgency it requires.
So, yes, Guyanese will continue to cuss when the lights go out.
But the fuller picture is that the Government is adding generation, modernising transmission, investing in new infrastructure, and trying to build a power system capable of keeping pace with the Guyana that is emerging.