Latest update October 29th, 2026 10:25 AM
GPL and energy supply
(Kaieteur News) – The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc., CEO, Kesh Nandlall, is proving himself to be a rising star in the public relations arena. The CEO has all these comforting numbers, about how much the GPL has grown, how many more customers it has, and how reliable it has been in the supply of power to energy suffering Guyanese.
Give the GPL a little more time, and he could soon be crowing that the GPL is more than a reliable supplier of power for the local market. It is one that its Guyanese customers are ready to give rave reviews.
According to Nandlall’s logbook, the GPL had 201,000 customers five years ago, but now has 244,000 paying customers, representing a solid 21% increase. On the face of it, a 21% increase in customers in five years must count as a solid development. In view of the massive investment needed to get utilities up and running, they usually operate within a monopoly framework. In other words, customers in Guyana, from new local households to the influx of foreigners who need power are sitting ducks that have no place to go but to the GPL.
The only competition that the GPL has for new customers are generators and inverters (solar power) that can be purchased by individuals and businesses that are able to afford them. Truth be told, were it not for those private power facilities, the pressure on GPL’s power generation, and the reliability of that output, would have put the brakes on Nandlall’s selling of how well the sole national power supplier did. In other words, private power facilities, whatever the form they took, eased demand pressures on the GPL supply grid.
It is why we have a concern with the CEO’s pitch that highlighted the availability and delivery of 260MW of “reliable, firm” electricity to the Demerara Berbice Interconnected System. GPL may have 260MW of electricity in its capacity, as the CEO said. But it is a stretch of the imagination for anyone to make any serious claim of what is a “reliable” or “firm” supply of electricity from GPL.
Sober citizens would have difficulty agreeing with that statement. GPL and the CEO know that the energy experiences of Guyanese have been close to a plague or persistent nightmare. We at this paper say point blank that “reliable, firm” electricity supply would be the last words that suffering Guyanese use to record what they live with for years. Often, blackouts occur several times a day for long stretches of time, or happen at such frequent intervals that they reduce Nandlall’s selling efforts to the laughable. Considering that his audience consisted of mainly foreigners hoping to get a foot in the door in exciting Oil Guyana, he can get away with his glossing over what actually happens here with electricity. He tries that before an audience of ordinary Guyanese, and rotten onions and eggs could be the gifts showered on him.
To dress up his presentation, Nandlall stated that power generation increased from 903 to 1465 gigawatt hours, a 65% jump in the last five years. We congratulate the GPL on what must rank as another feather in its cap. The 65% is a positive, but the GPL still struggles, for different reasons, to maintain that same “reliable, firm” electricity supply to Guyanese who have no backup systems, and so depend on the company for all of their energy needs. It is a hit-and-miss situation for many GPL customers across wide areas in Guyana, with some areas hit more often and longer than others. Since, Nandlall is so happy to rollout his inspiring numbers, it should please him to provide a report to citizens, which identifies by region how many hours GPL has left them in darkness, and worrying about the preservation of their appliances and scarce food supplies.
That helps, but there’s more. We know firsthand from staff how blackouts have affected homes and communities, and distant relatives. The lost hours of students and small contractors, and the costs they bear. The foods that spoil, and the challenges to replace those. The GPL has its stats and sunny narratives. Guyanese live with different ones that clash with GPL’s self-serving commercials.
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