Critical to Guyana’s development is its infrastructure which will link 83,000 miles into a cohesive unit. Underlying this is the generation of power and source of its production, in our case, oil.  Despite a $3.9 billion dollar budget in 2018 and steps to fix the system, a stable electricity supply continues to plague us given the distribution network in 2019.

A submarine cable in a commercial shipping zone is continuously damaged (Ross 2019) and accidents which destroy poles also cause productive loss to the citizenry and stymies industrial growth. Conservative estimates put the loss to repair damage to that cable at more than USD $1 million in June 2019 alone and this situation remains untenable.

Loss is estimated at 29.6 percent for every 100 hours of electricity. GPL is on record as stating that they need USD$150 million to fix serious deficiencies for urgent reconfiguration, reconductoring and building redundancy (Gordon 2018). More recently fuel shipment delays caused several power cuts  in June 2019 with no abatement at the close of 2019. 

Short Term

The distribution system needs fixing and GPL’S plan to create redundant lines to avoid complete shutdowns must be a need for priority in 2020.  While our revenue from oil should have been able to cover a significant portion of this, the reality is that a direct intervention over the next two years will necessarily see us having to borrow the needed US $150 million against future revenue since the budgetary support component of our annual take will be insufficient for that level of investment. 

Medium Term

There is currently no long term plan for energy supply in Guyana with ad hoc measures being determined in the short term, and major projects vulnerable to political change.   In the medium term, we intend to create a bipartisan Parliamentary Sub-committee on Energy Sector Reform, one tasked with commissioning a national report and strategy plan that takes into consideration a multi-pronged approach to sustainable energy, including such factors as the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, radical recent advances in solar energy technology, the role of climate change, and green infrastructure initiatives.

Long Term

Our long term vision for the electricity supply sector envisions a significant reduction of the use of a fossil fuel generation, and a combination of wind energy generation along the coastal belt, the expansion of solar energy solutions for remote communities, and the introduction of waste-to-energy and bio-fuel facilities at the municipal level with municipalities not only converting their own waste for power generation but using the waste of surrounding communities, who will also benefit from the power.