Unusual peak, blackouts

Aug 18, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – “Unusual peak.” In electricity demand. Hon. Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Deodat Indar, was unusually clear with a warning to expect blackouts. Appreciate the candor, minister. The Wales Gas-to-Energy, the much-advertised solution, is closing in fast on being two years past due. When that link collapsed, it dragged a bundle of Guyanese with it.

Thanks to Minister Indar, Guyanese are informed of the source(s) of their blackout pains. Demand versus supply. Power plants and powerlines. Substations and feeders. He was on a roll: he threw in the Spanish named child of the scorchers that have left people like me breathless, searching for a bucket of ice. It’s not there. Needs electricity to solidify, and too expensive for a man of my means. After all the billions spent, all the elapsed years, all the warming speeches made, this is what Guyanese hear or read: “unusual peak” in demand. Plus the entanglements that leave locals cursing and shaking their fist at the authorities. Authorities preferred today, so that everyone feels shielded, none targeted.

Guyanese don’t need a minister doubling as a meteorologist. They know about hot, blistering weather. When the fridge stops (if there’s one), think of how rapidly what is outside becomes a candidate for dogfood or garbage bin. Guyanese want a minister with answers. Where is the blasted promised electricity? Don’t even worry about half price, right now; that will attract its own blows later. Just give the people the damn current. The last thing I want to hear is a series of generators sputtering into roaring life. I live in a bigshot area: big ministry, big hospital complex, big gambling establishment. I am surrounded by a sea of generators. When they come on, wisdom comes. Parts of Georgetown without light. Parts of the East Coast without light. Sometimes, the East Bank and across the BJ Bridge without light. The big minister man was kind enough to alert Guyanese as to the upcoming facts of life. Theirs. It could take weeks, even months, to unscramble, the situation.

Frankly, it has been more current than upcoming. Guyanese are in for it. The first clue is when a minister is forced to take preemptive action and faces the public and the music. What music, when everybody is for the, ah, authorities. A ministerial press engagement doesn’t make anything easier. Still, I am grateful for the heads up. Transparency from the authorities. Time to get tuff. The talk was about energy and “unusual peak” in demand and the accompanying blackouts. The GPL boss was there. He or one of his engineers are the best, most-equipped, people to face the people and lay the GPL’s cards on the table. This is what is being dealt with, this is where the GPL is, and this is the result of the deficit. I repeat technical and professional people, not some politician. If Minister Indar is offended, never intended.

Next, he was proud to inform Guyanese that at the cabinet level, the authorities instructed that the lights and air conditioners be turned off at the end of the workday. Snatching at scraps. Why are the authorities working with air conditioners on during the day? I want to know. They should turn them off, so Guyanese get that energy. So, they show solidarity with suffering Guyanese. So, that the authorities from Cabinet on down have firsthand knowledge of what it is to live like ordinary Guyanese. That is, those who maybe can struggle with the price of an ac unit, but cannot pay the light bill. Now I’m going to get in more trouble. Minister Indar should turn off his ac during working hours and set an example. Authorities are in the same boat as the abused. Howzat for leadership! Probably a 2030 presidential candidate in the making.

Points made. Departure time. Blackouts have strangled Guyanese from birth. Relief needed. Let there be light. And there was light. Obvious: heatstroke struck me.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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blackouts, GHK Lall, GPL, Wales Gas-to-Energy

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