High electricity demand one of the factors behind recent outages, says power company in Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) says increased electricity demand, particularly during peak hours, is placing increased pressure on the national distribution network and contributing to recent power outages.

“The reality is that the distribution system is now facing challenges. That is, feeders are now being overloaded, transformers are being taxed and overloaded, and some people get voltage fluctuations,” head of the GPL Executive Management Committee, Kesh Nandlall, told a news conference.

Nandlall acknowledged that the increased demand has resulted in the peak rising from 221 megawatts last year to approximately 257 megawatts and that the highest demand is generally recorded between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., when most households return home and simultaneously use their air-conditioning units, fans, lights and other appliances.

He said that the increased usage is placing pressure on distribution feeders and transformers, resulting in voltage fluctuations and outages in some areas.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer Bharat Harjohn told reporters that there is currently a shortfall in reserve power, resulting in overloading.

“Most of our feeders are tripping right now because of overloading conditions. We are now developing a strategy on how we can deal with that. Some feeders, we can offload and put on another feeder; some areas we may have to take off an area to ensure it won’t affect all the customers in an area,” Harjohn said.

He said that the situation with the feeders should be resolved by mid-October, with Nandlall urging consumers to conserve power as much as they can while the company expands and upgrades its system.

Nandlall said that the company’s customer base has grown from approximately 201,000 in 2020 to an estimated 250,000, and that GPL has increased its generation capacity from approximately 230 megawatts to 265.6 megawatts available, with an additional five megawatts expected by Wednesday.

Head of Engineering on Projects Ryan Ross told reporters that GPL is currently undertaking approximately US$800 million in projects, including new substations, transmission upgrades and approximately 350 kilometres of additional distribution network.

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