Dominican Republic energy company recommends improvements to GPL

Last Updated on Monday, 14 September 2026, 20:35 by Writer

One day after the opposition Alliance For Change (AFC) member David Patterson assailed the government for failing to improve the electricity sector to cater for more commercial and domestic consumers, President Irfaan Ali on Monday acknowledged that the state-owned Guyana Power and Light (GPL) has not been keeping pace with the country’s development and said the Dominican Republic-headquartered InterEnergy has made several major recommendations.

Referring to the assessment of GPL by InterEnergy, a privately-owned company, Mr Patterson, who is also a former electricity minister, said the findings show that there has been an 18 percent increase in demand from 205 megawatts (MW) in 2024 to 242.6 MW in August 2026 in the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS), compared to a 4 percent hike in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The DBIS has about 230,000 customers, he said.

“We cannot continue with an unreliable system and a system that is not designed to do what the country wants it to do, what the development requires,” he said, citing increased demand from more industries and hotels that were connecting to the grid.

InterEnergy has been hired at a monthly cost of US$650,000 to oversee improvements to the transmission and distribution network and other works linked to the Wales natural gas energy system.

Mr Patterson at the weekend said the current electricity woes were “completely avoidable”.

He noted that each new hotel adds about 1.5 megawatts in demand to the age-old transmission network.

“This is already predicted so you have to be ahead of the curve,” he said.

He also criticised the government’s sense for complete reliance on limited energy sources — the 300 MW natural gas-fired plant, under construction for five years, while renting two powerships from Karpowership for more than US$200,000 per day as a temporary measure.

Instead, he said the government should have bought and installed more electricity generators.

Meanwhile, just back from an official visit to Qatar, President Irfaan Ali said that the Middle East nation was ready to improve Guyana’s electricity sector at a time when InterEnergy forecasts that demand is projected to grow by 138 percent by 2029 or twice as much electricity in five years based on the country’s development path.

“We have to bite the bullet, make the investment, and this is what the report is saying it’s not a short-term fix, and we have to, of course, hold people accountable in this process,” he said.

He noted that GPL could see an increase in its consumers by 62,000 due to increased growth, businesses and housing.

Dr Ali did not say whether there would be a shake-up at the power company, whose fuel bill is being heavily subsidised by the government to prevent the real cost to consumers.

He said InterEnergy has recommended that “Right now, the Minister of Finance is working on finding more money for GPL just to meet the increases in the fuel costs – tens of billions of dollars, so that it’s not passed on to the consumer. This is what we do every single day to protect disposable income,” he said.

The President said InterEnergy’s recommendations include the need for an independent grid reliability task force, smart metering and digitisation, additional generating capacity, investment in transmission and distribution.

He said the report also highlights that while GPL focusses on transmission, it must simultaneously make the investment in distribution because of larger and differently structured housing schemes, more apartment buildings, industries and commercial areas in housing areas.

GPL is currently building high-voltage transmission lines and substations in the DBIS at a cost of US$800 million.