Latest update April 7th, 2026 12:30 AM
Gov’t tired of excuses from GPL
…promises shake-up in management if returned to office
…says current management cannot lead transformation of sector
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo
Kaieteur News – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo (VP) has had it up to his neck with the Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL), telling reporters on Thursday that he is tired of the excuses the company comes up with for the daily blackouts across the country.
At his weekly press conference held at party headquarters Freedom House on Robb Street, the VP was asked by the media, if his party is returned to office at the September 1 polls, does he see them working with the current management of the GPL to fix the blackout woes. As if anticipating the question, the VP out rightly stated “I’m tired of the excuses every day I call them, tired. Sometimes, I just don’t find the excuses funny.”
He explained that there were some cases where they had to deliberately give blackouts due to the construction programme. This he said is relevant to the transmission and distribution mains on the Railway Embankment on the East Coast Demerara and some parts of the East Bank Demerara, which have to be moved off, so that the roadways can be expanded.
He highlighted that government is aware it will have to “strengthen management there at GPL with the massive plans for transformation. “I don’t think the current management can lead that process…that they can address all of the issues and our plans are massive to have a stable grid, smart grid by the time we get around to the next elections.”
Jagdeo reminded that there is already the Gas to Energy project scheduled to come on stream bringing 300 megawatts into the system, but they will still need an addition 300 megawatts, prompting plans to resume tendering for the hydro project. Currently there is a project to build out the grid all the way to Berbice on steel towers and the same will be replicated in Linden and Parika. The Essequibo Coast will also be getting its own system as it will not be on the grid.
According to Jagdeo, the transmission mains will have to be replaced as these are lots of old lines and old transformers, therefore government will have to replace all of those built circuit systems, so that citizens can have stable power. “This needs to be done so that, when you have one feeder tripping it, don’t shut down the whole system, you would have redundancies, so that’s one. So, we have to get firms to supervise the projects to make sure we get good quality work and we get value for money. We also have to get value for money from the management and so I see the management being strengthened enormously as another important task. It would be stupid of us to go to put in all of this investment and not strengthen the management and the capability of GPL to manage the process.”
Former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson earlier this year had lamented the poor management of GPL. He argued that in spite of the huge amounts of money, there has not been anything accomplished, as the management remains intact, with financial and commercial losses on the all-time high above 30%. “Daily blackouts continue, the Alliance For Chance, on behalf of the country, is demanding that the government immediately employ external as well as local, competent staff, as the country can recall in 2020 most of the competent staff would have been let go on resumption of the PPP tenure, and the result is exactly what we are seeing now…,” he said at a nes conference back in April this year.
Patterson stressed that the much-vaunted Gas-to-Energy project which he termed as the government’s silver bullet is languishing, and the AFC has maintained that it will not solve the electricity issues. “Now, the PPP has boasted that with the two powerships, the 27 generators, containerized generators, as well as the existing generation stock that we have doubled the capacity needed, yet every single day the country is faced with blackout. So the challenges and the problems are obviously not limited to the generation alone.”
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