GPL under pressure
Aug 19, 2026
Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar (centre), GPL team lead Kesh Nandlall (2nd left) and other GPL officials at the briefing.
…as river cable, East Bank transmission line hit limits
(Kaieteur News) Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar on Monday warned that Guyana’s electricity transmission network is under increasing pressure, with a critical cable across the Demerara River already operating at more than twice its safe capacity.
Indar said peak electricity demand in Region Three has surged from about 26 megawatts (MW) to approximately 41 MW, placing enormous strain on the cable linking the region to the power system in Region Four.
“The cable across the river is taxed. It’s supposed to be carrying a safe limit of about 7 to 8 megawatts of power,” Indar explained.
He said the cable transmitted as much as 15 MW several days ago, placing it at serious risk of failure. “If that cable fries, we’ll have problems in Region Three because the power is transmitted from Region Four through that cable to Region Three,” he warned.
To ease the pressure, contractors were mobilised over the weekend to begin installing a second cable beneath the Demerara River. The new cable will run from the Princes Street Substation to the Vreed-en-Hoop Substation, with work scheduled to begin today.
But Region Three is not the only area facing transmission constraints.
Indar said the transmission line running along the East Bank of Demerara from Garden of Eden through Timehri to the Soesdyke-Linden Highway has also reached its thermal limit. With electricity demand peaking, the overloaded line has been causing trips, creating another vulnerability in the national grid.
Government has awarded a contract to Ramotar and Sons to upgrade the transmission system. The contractor has already begun transporting materials, with pole installation expected to begin by Wednesday.
The project will be executed in phases, with the new transmission line extending to Timehri and ending at Soesdyke. Indar cautioned that load shedding will be necessary as sections of the project are constructed.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) generation position has improved.
As of Friday,14th August, 2026, 256 MW of generation capacity was available. Following the addition of 9.3 MW in new generation capacity, available capacity has risen to 266.3 MW. With peak demand currently ranging between 235 MW and 240 MW, GPL now has an estimated reserve of about 26.3 MW.
The additional generation provides some breathing room, but the transmission bottlenecks underline a growing challenge: Guyana is adding generating capacity faster than it is expanding the infrastructure needed to reliably move that electricity to where it is needed most.
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