APNU says poor govt planning causing electricity woes

Last Updated on Monday, 17 August 2026, 0:47 by Writer

Even after the government has sought to dismiss suggestions that it lapsed in adequately preparing for increased electricity demand due to the hot El Niño weather phenomenon and expanded business and housing, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) parliamentarian Sharma Solomon said the evidence shows clearly that there is poor planning.

Referring to the government’s own national statistics provided last Friday, he chided the Irfaan Ali-led administration for blaming El Niño for a “planning failure” that should have taken into consideration an increase in the measurable number of domestic, industrial and commercial customers on the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS) from 204,000 in 2020 to 250,000 on August 13, 2026, and increased electricity demand of 21.6 megawatts (MW) in one year—from 242.64 MW compared to 221 MW last year.

“The question is not whether government could have predicted the exact temperature on August 15, 2026. The question is whether government should have been planning electricity capacity for a growing oil-producing economy. Of course it should,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

Mr Solomon said public utilities minister Deodat Indar said feeders designed for approximately 8–9 MW are being forced to carry more than they were designed to handle; an increase in electricity demand at Vreed-en-Hoop to 41 MW while generation is 26.1 MW; a transmission line into Region Five carrying more than 25 MW and Garden of Eden line reaching its thermal limit, while the government was “now constructing new feeders and cables, some of which will take months to complete.”

“This is precisely the argument that the APNU has been making. The government cannot invite growth, build houses, encourage industries, expand commercial activity and then wait until the electricity system is overloaded before you build the infrastructure necessary to support that growth,” he said.

Though the minister listed a number of generators that would begin operating by month-end to increase generation output to 280 MW, he did not concede that there was poor planning.

He said the Guyana Power and Light dispatches its annual distribution and expansion plan to his office.

“You can look at it. It plans way up into the future. It gives you customers’ expectations, demand line, every single thing they capture from their planning section so it’s not of (sic) a lack of planning,” he said.

Prime Minister Mark Phillips repeatedly referred to the 300 MW natural gas-fired power plant that was being constructed at Wales, West Bank Demerara, as an example of forward planning.

However, he admitted that the now estimated US$2 billion project suffered a number of delays. “You can’t fault us on forward planning because the forward planning that we did, this project should have been on stream long before now, and it would have been 300 megawatts and if we had the 300 megawatts, in keeping with the timeframe, there would have been no need for rationing,” he said.

The project has recorded several missed completion deadlines but government is optimistic that the project will come on stream.

Mr Indar said the United States-headquartered company, LINDSAYCA, that is building the Wales gas-to-energy power plant has given the Guyana government the commitment that at the end of 2026, one of the turbines would supply 57 MW to the grid.

He boasted that since the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) returned to office in 2020, he government had added 196 MW of additional power.

Linden
APNU parliamentarian Solomon recommended that the government not only increase electricity generation output to keep pace with development as part of a comprehensive upgrade but also charge industrial consumers more.

He said Linden could no longer provide cheap electricity at GY$12 per kilowatt hour KWh unlike GY$63 to GY$65 per kWh in other areas, something he called a “serious discrepancy.”

“Government must properly classify industrial consumers and ensure that industrial growth does not become a burden on ordinary residents,” Mr Solomon said.

He justified his recommendation on the grounds that the additional industrial and other demand brought onto the system between 2024 and 2026 is more than 2.5 to 3 MW.

“That is not insignificant on a constrained local system. It is quite significant, especially given that these industrial consumers are not paying the same rates that ordinary commercial consumers elsewhere would pay,” he said.

Mr Solomon said industrial activity has expanded beyond the traditional areas and into areas extending toward Moblissa, major commercial and industrial investors have entered the town, and road and infrastructure projects have added temporary and permanent electricity demand. “In all of this, the electricity system has had to absorb this growth without the corresponding generation capacity being put in place,” he added.

He reiterated that the failure is the absence of adequate forward planning as the government adds more demand.

He said the electricity system remained constrained, as the government continued opening Linden to new unofficial industrial zones.

Mr Solomon, who is an executive member of APNU’s parent party, the People’s National Congress Reform, said his political organisation welcomes investment, businesses, industries, jobs and capital, but investment requires infrastructure.

“You cannot have unofficial industrial development without industrial capacity. You cannot build industrial capacity on the back of a community electricity concession, forged out of a community struggle, without asking who pays for the additional demand,” he said.

The Linden Electricity Company Inc. (LECI) on Sunday said the town was being hit by a recent spate of power outages.

The company said the extreme heat has led to a “substantial uptick” in the use of cooling equipment, particularly air conditioning units, placing unprecedented strain on the grid.

The company explained that the generating capacity through BOSAI Minerals is 14.5 MW but over the past few weeks, the community’s peak demand has surged past the 15 MW threshold, outpacing the available supply, forcing the commencement of blackouts.

“To prevent a total grid collapse and protect the system’s integrity, the LECI has been forced to implement scheduled load-shedding (rolling blackouts) during peak demand periods. These outages are being carefully managed to rotate across the community, ensuring that no single area bears the burden for an extended period,” LECI said.

The government said the 35 sawmillers have agreed to operate their high-consumption motorised equipment between the lower demand hours of 10:00 p.m. to 11 a.m.

The LECI said steps being taken to increase generation output are the construction of a 15 MW solar farm, and convincing BOSAI.

APNU parliamentarian Solomon, focussing specifically on Linden, used available figures to demonstrate that there had been no planning for increased electricity demand in that town.

He said Linden provides “perhaps the clearest local example of this national failure”.

He said when the power purchase agreement (PPA) was established around 2005, the community’s electricity demand was being managed at around 6 MW, but that has grown to 12 MW in 2024 and 14 to 14.5 MW in 2026.

“Those factors may explain the immediate spike in demand, but they do not explain why a country that is now earning unprecedented oil revenues is repeatedly finding itself scrambling for electricity capacity, negotiating with private power suppliers, asking large consumers to come off the grid and telling ordinary citizens to conserve electricity,” he said.