Describing the situation at the state-owned Guyana Power and Light (GPL) as “bad”, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo this afternoon promised that the government is working to reduce the power cuts currently being experienced by citizens across the country.  

At his weekly press conference today, the Vice President said the frustrations of citizens over the frequent blackouts are justified. He said even his livelihood is disrupted by the blackouts although he has a generator system.

He explained that the situation at GPL is that the demand for power has outstripped GPL’s capacity resulting int he frequent disruptions.

“Now the situation at GPL is bad, there is no sugar coating this, that we have situation at GPL that we have explained a hundred times before but often explanation don’t suit people because often when the lights go off it disrupts their lifestyle and their normal, it causes untold hardships for them, sometimes their equipment get destroyed, so I understand the feeling there,” Mr. Jagdeo said.

GPL has an installed capacity of 166 Megawatts, while the current demand is over 180 megawatts.

Mr. Jagdeo said the issues facing GPL should be blamed on the former administration and its non-support of the Amaila Falls hydro power project, which he believes would have been able to meet the current energy needs.

The Amaila project has been talked about for several years, but despite the many plans under different administrations, there has been little movement to push the project forward. The costs associated with the project has always been a problematic factor.

“So now, what we have in these three and a half years, we have bought near 50 megawatts of power, but we have these old units that should have been replaced since 2017 by Amaila (falls hydro project) that we still have to cokes along, and what has happened is that the demand has grown. Anyone here in Guyana would understand, the growth in demand,” the Vice President said.

According to the Vice President, with all of the development taking place, the demand for electricity could be expected to expand to 300 megawatts. He said the power problems should be completely addressed when the gas to energy project comes fully on stream in 2025.

“Our medium-term plan, next year, 300 megawatts coming in to replace all these, right now we are looking to buy 40 or maybe 80 megawatts of power. We are already in the process of doing this because this will for two years we will buy this power until the gas-to entry project comes,” the Vice President stated.

Opposition Member of Parliament, David Patterson has said that the coalition left GPL on a solid footing. He said although the government continues to blame the former government, the current administration has been in office for four years and the blackouts have worsened. He said GPL continues to be badly managed by the current Government and its chosen leadership at the power company.

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