Generators

Oct 09, 2023 Editorial

Editorial…

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, can be counted upon to generate his own levels of hilarity and anxiety at the same time. How he does this is open to all manner of speculation, but President Ali is a generator all by himself, with some of the wisdoms that he comes up with, and puts in the public domain. Going back to private generators is one such instance of the President’s way of thinking.

The nicely said, and thinly veiled, ‘get off the national grid’ from the President to consumers of huge amounts of electricity has its merits, but there are also the downsides, which may not have been given much thought. The positives are that the GPL would be able to have some spare capacity to deliver to strapped Guyanese energy consumers fighting a daily battle with blackouts, and lost hours, as well as possibly costly food items that went quickly rancid in the remorseless heat. We think that it is more helpful to suffering citizens for President Ali to get serious with what is going on in the offshore oilfields operated by ExxonMobil and others. What is ExxonMobil doing out there that could have contributed to this scorching heat now occurring in unending waves, but about which the Government of Guyana and its leading stewards are clueless, or just too casual.

Also, what President Ali and his advisers may have seen as another positive crumbles under the slightest scrutiny. The idea, with the not so hidden threat embedded, of a tax on big consumers, most likely corporate ones, gives the impression that it would be a deterrent, and make commercial entities hasten back to their generators now lying idle. We think that the President and his team ought to know that any tax, large or small, is going to be passed on to consumers who have no choice but to buy the products of such entities, but at a new price. It is a tactic that is as old as the sea, and just as beneficial to businesses, which has the added advantage of companies having the opportunity to tack on more than what they are being taxed on their final prices. The end result is that consumers may get some relief through a situation of less blackouts, but they now get the pain of one more blackeye, thanks to the PPPC Government’s inability to figure out what to do with the electricity crisis that Guyanese have lived with for decades.

Further, the presidential intimidation of taxing big users of GPL’s electricity output may not turn out to the big deterrent that it is made out to be. The President was quick to remind Guyanese about the energy and transportation subsidies that his government introduced when it came back into power. All things being held equal, businesses forced off the grid may find that it is not such a bad exchange after all, since they would be buying generator fuel at subsidized prices, with the corporate tax on fuel being picked up by the government.

There is another point that President Ali should consider, as he focuses on large businesses and their energy needs. Considering the massive influx of foreign businesses, and the local entities that have sprung up to support them, GPL’s electricity generation has been overwhelmed by demands with which it cannot cope. We assert that a likely sizeable portion of that influx was not on the national electricity grid before, so there is this new consumer segment to consider, even if they have generators. This goes to the ongoing refrain that resonates across Guyana: slowdown oil projects, so that institutional Guyana can catch its breath, consider its limitations, and weighs its options on the best combination of ingredients for a better way forward.

More oil projects approved in short order means that a bigger business feeder system would be required. This can only make the GPL’s position more severe, hence, the drain on GPL’s already stretched resources, and the breakdowns (blackouts) that have plagued large swathes of the population.

Some generators are on the way, and Christmas draws near. The GPL will breakout, or it will breakdown, regardless of who is on or off of it.

Dr. Irfaan Ali, ExxonMobil, GPL’s electricity, Guyana’s President, the PPPC Government’s

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