A prolonged power outage on Saturday night left customers across Guyana without electricity for several hours, triggering widespread frustration as citizens endured the heat and waited for power to be restored.
The outage affected customers across the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS), including Georgetown, West Demerara, the East Coast, East Bank and Berbice.
In an advisory issued during the outage, the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) said the interruption was caused by a “network disturbance.”
“Teams have been mobilized to restore electricity as soon as possible,” GPL said, while apologising to customers for the inconvenience and asking for their patience and understanding.
However, as the hours passed, frustration mounted among customers who remained without power.
In many areas, electricity was not restored until around 3:00 a.m. yesterday, leaving residents without fans, air-conditioning and other basic electrical appliances for much of the night.
The outage sparked an outpouring of anger on social media, with residents questioning the length of the interruption, the reliability of the national electricity supply and the time being taken to restore service.
For many, the timing of the outage made the situation particularly difficult.
Guyana is currently experiencing hot conditions, and the absence of fans and air-conditioning left residents to cope with the heat without the usual means of cooling their homes.
The disruption also raised concerns for households with young children, elderly relatives and people who rely on electricity for essential needs.
Residents questioned whether the impact of prolonged outages is being adequately considered during periods of intense heat, particularly as electricity demand rises when households increase their use of fans and air-conditioning.
The Guyana Water Inc was also affected. In a notice yesterday it said distribution of water to Diamond-Grove, Little Diamond, Prospect and Great Diamond would have stopped at 10 am as the 6th Avenue well was “out of service for a prolonged period due to (the) power outage. As a result, the reservoirs could not be filled to full capacity.
The latest outage has once again placed GPL’s reliability under scrutiny, with customers calling for greater accountability and more timely information when major disruptions occur.
The latest disruption comes against the backdrop of warnings issued last month by the government and GPL about increasing pressure on the national electricity system.
At a press conference in August, Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar disclosed that electricity demand had reached a record 242.64 megawatts, compared with a peak of approximately 221 megawatts during the corresponding period last year.
He warned that demand could rise to approximately 266 megawatts during August, September and October, as temperatures increase and electricity consumption grows.
Indar attributed the rising demand to a combination of hotter weather, housing expansion and increased commercial and industrial activity. The number of GPL customers had also grown from approximately 204,000 in 2020 to about 250,000 in 2026
Prime Minister Mark Phillips, speaking at the same press conference, said the prolonged hot and dry conditions had contributed to an unusual increase in electricity consumption and were placing additional pressure on the national grid.
The officials had also acknowledged that the challenge was not simply the amount of electricity being generated, but the ability of sections of the transmission and distribution network to safely carry the increasing load.
That warning is particularly relevant following Saturday night’s widespread interruption, although GPL has not said that the latest outage was caused by record demand or the hot weather.
Officials have previously outlined several interventions aimed at reducing pressure on the system, including bringing additional generation online, upgrading transmission and distribution infrastructure and encouraging large electricity users to reduce their consumption during peak periods.
The government has also encouraged ministries and other public agencies to switch off unnecessary lighting and air-conditioning after working hours, while large customers with their own generation capacity have been asked to reduce their reliance on the GPL grid during peak periods.
Despite those measures, Saturday night’s outage has renewed questions about the resilience of the electricity network and whether the existing infrastructure can keep pace with the country’s rapidly increasing demand.
For customers who spent hours in darkness and heat, the immediate concern was less about the technical explanation and more about when their electricity would return.
While GPL has apologised for the interruption, Saturday night’s prolonged outage has left many customers demanding clearer information, faster restoration and assurances that similar widespread disruptions can be prevented.
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