> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Prime Minister Says Bills Will Not Halve Until the Plant Runs at Full Capacity. That Is Mid-2027. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-gas-to-energy-delay-gpl-losses-solar-2026/ - Published: 2026-08-30T19:24:13.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-13T05:14:59.000Z - Description: PM Mark Phillips said on 15 August the Wales gas plant starts by year end but bills will not halve until full capacity, expected mid-2027. The two-year delay is costed at about US$884 million. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Energy, Business, Analysis **Quick summary:** Prime Minister Mark Phillips said on 15 August that the Wales gas plant will start by year end but bills will not fall by half until it reaches full capacity, expected mid-2027\. The two-year delay is costed at about US$884 million above an initial US$759 million. GPL's system losses rose to 25.43 per cent in 2025. By La Caribeña News · 30 August 2026 Guyana's answer to the highest electricity costs in its history has been to wait for one plant. The plant will start this year with one turbine of 57 megawatts, out of 300. The Prime Minister has now said what that means for the bill. ## What did the Prime Minister say? That the promised halving does not arrive with the plant. It arrives with full capacity. On 15 August, Kaieteur News reported Prime Minister Mark Phillips saying the Wales project would start up by year end, but that there would be [no 50 per cent reduction in light bills until the plant reaches full capacity](https://kaieteurnewsonline.com/2026/08/15/wales-project-to-startup-by-year-end-but-no-50-promised-reduction-in-light-bills-until-plant-reaches-full-capacity-pm/?ref=lacaribenanews.com). Full capacity is 300 megawatts and is expected in **mid-2027**. What the contractor, Lindsayca, has committed to by the end of this year is **one turbine generating 57 megawatts**. The halving was the case for the project. It was made when the startup was to be **year-end 2024**. ## What has the delay cost? About US$884 million above a base of US$759 million, and the composition matters. The two plants were [initially priced at US$759 million](https://kaieteurnewsonline.com/2026/05/28/two-year-delay-of-wales-gas-project-costing-guyana-884m-more/?ref=lacaribenanews.com). Kaieteur News reports the two-year delay as costing the country approximately **US$884 million more**. That US$884 million is not a separate bill sitting alongside the fuel. It is the overrun **driven by** the heavy fuel oil import bill, powership rentals and a legal dispute. The **US$619 million** spent on heavy fuel oil across the two-year period sits inside it. The two figures should not be added. The trajectory is US$759 million to roughly US$1.64 billion. Underneath it is a running cost the state cannot avoid while it waits. Since January 2025 Guyana Power and Light has relied almost entirely on imported heavy fuel oil. At the 2026 budget defence, GPL's base fuel bill was given as **GY$47 billion a year**, about **US$18.78 million a month**, of which **93 per cent is heavy fuel oil**. The Prime Minister then supplied the figure that moves it. He put the average increase in fuel import costs since the start of 2026 at **74.8 per cent**. At that rate the monthly bill passes **US$32.83 million**. A further **US$97 million** went to the contractor over a legal dispute. The delay itself traces to soil stabilisation work at Wales and a standoff between contractor and government that went to arbitration. On 25 August, five days before this article, the government had **still not decided whether to penalise the contractor**. ## Is the grid being overhauled? Yes, at US$4.869 billion, and GPL has published why it will not show quickly. The premise that nothing is being done about ageing infrastructure does not survive the documents. GPL has a capital programme of **US$4.869 billion over five years** for transmission and distribution modernisation, smart grid deployment and loss reduction. Budget 2026 allocates **GY$66.2 billion** to the transmission and distribution network alone. What the utility has also published, in its own **Development and Expansion Plan 2026-2030**, is a warning about what that money buys and when. Smart grid investment, the plan states, differs from conventional network reinforcement, and [its "impact on losses is neither immediate nor linear, but accumulates as capabilities are deployed, integrated, and operationalized"](https://kaieteurnewsonline.com/2026/08/13/smart-grid-rollout-will-not-yield-immediate-reduction-in-power-losses-gpl-development-plan/?ref=lacaribenanews.com). The plan goes further, about itself: "In the early stages of deployment, smart grid investments may have limited observable impact on aggregate loss levels," the plan says. "During this phase, benefits are primarily diagnostic rather than corrective." Improved measurement, it continues, "can create the appearance of persistent or even elevated losses, not because performance has deteriorated, but because previously latent losses are more accurately revealed." Measurement improves before outcomes do. GPL has said so in advance. ## Why are the losses rising? Because the utility is being drained of the people who fix them. The Public Utilities Commission puts GPL's system losses at **25.43 per cent in 2025**, against a target of **22.43 per cent**. That is three points above target and worse than the **24.71 per cent** recorded in 2024\. The PUC assesses GPL as operating at about **30 per cent efficiency**. Roughly **12 percentage points** of that loss is commercial, meaning theft and unbilled consumption. The rest is technical, dissipated in the wires. GPL's own explanation for missing the target is the part that connects to everything else in this story. It cites the [loss of trained personnel to the oil and gas industry](https://kaieteurnewsonline.com/2026/06/26/gpl-losing-skilled-workers-to-oil-sector-as-system-losses-exceed-target-puc-report/?ref=lacaribenanews.com), alongside the diversion of existing staff onto a prepaid meter upgrade programme. The sector the electricity is meant to serve is recruiting the engineers who would deliver it. Against the commercial share, GPL's Loss Reduction Department, working with the Public Utilities and Aviation Ministry, removed **more than 220 illegal connections** in a three-day exercise across Eccles, Diamond Phase Three and Little Diamond, with further exercises at Sophia and at Coverden on the East Bank Demerara, the fourth location in the campaign. The utility states that electricity theft is a criminal offence. Two hundred and twenty connections against twelve percentage points of a national loss figure. ## Where is Guyana's distributed solar? In the hinterland, and it is larger than most people assume. The premise that decentralised solar is absent from the Low Carbon Development Strategy also does not survive the documents. The [LCDS 2030](https://lcds.gov.gy/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) records **over 30 megawatts of decentralised power systems** deployed for hinterland electrification, against a stated aim of dismantling a **97 per cent dependency on imported fossil fuels** while energy use rises five-fold to 2030. The delivery is real and it is countable. The government's Solar Home Energy Systems initiative set a target of 30,000 households and [exceeded it by 7,000](https://dpi.gov.gy/solar-lights-the-way-over-37000-hinterland-homes-powered/?ref=lacaribenanews.com): more than **37,000 hinterland homes**, about **4.8 megawatts**, roughly **140,000 people**, across more than **245 communities**. Forty-one further solar installations are planned across nine regions by the end of 2026. Batavia, in Region Seven, shows the shape of it. A GY$300 million grid, launched in **2021** and executed by **CNOOC Petroleum Guyana** as a **US$1.5 million donation**, was commissioned by the Prime Minister in September 2025\. It comprises an 81 kilowatt micro-grid at Greenfield, a 24.2 kilowatt system at Arian Island and 51 solar home systems of 2.2 kilowatts each, electrifying more than 125 households. So distributed generation is national policy. It is directed at communities the grid does not reach. Coastal rooftops are a different case. Grid-tied rooftop solar has been permitted since **27 June 2025**, with net billing open to any customer under 100 kWac, and the tax treatment is already in place: a VAT exemption on renewable equipment, import duty exemptions, a two-year corporation tax holiday for importers and a Wear and Tear Schedule that allows the capital cost to be written off in two years. The National Grid-Connected Solar Programme targets **5,000 households**. Five thousand, on the coast. Thirty-seven thousand, in the hinterland. ## What would a rooftop programme cost against this? Less than the overrun, on this newspaper's own costing, and it would not do the same job. [This newspaper costed the full case on 17 August](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/a-rooftop-system-for-every-guyanese-household-costs-between-us-486-million-and-us-1-27-billion-the-gas-programme-costs-at-least-us-1-billion/). Guyana has **271,946 households** on the 2022 census and average residential consumption of about **175 kWh a month**, which needs a system of roughly **1.56 kW**. Fitting every household costs between **US$486 million and US$1.27 billion**. The delay overrun is **US$884 million**. It sits inside that range. That comparison has to carry its own qualification, and it is the one we published with the original costing: **neither figure buys firm capacity from solar**. Rooftop panels do not run at night and do not, by themselves, hold a grid up. The plant and the panels are not substitutes, and treating them as such would be the same error in the opposite direction. What the comparison does establish is scale. The money already spent on being late is of the same order as the money that would put a system on every roof in the country. Guyana can also price its solar precisely, which is [why the gap in the gas figures is visible at all](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-publishes-what-each-solar-farm-costs-it-has-not-published-what-the-power-plant-costs/). The Linden contract of May 2025 is US$22.58 million for 15 MWp with 22 MWh of storage, or **US$1.51 a watt**. The Wales programme's US$1 billion covers the power plant, the natural gas liquids facility, transmission, substations and a national control centre together, and no published figure isolates the plant. ## Where are the lights actually going out? Region Ten, and the government says it is the only place. Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar has said Region Ten is the sole part of Guyana facing a generation shortfall, driven by economic activity and in particular the rapid growth of sawmilling. Demand in Linden reached **15.1 megawatts** against about **14.1 megawatts** supplied by Bosai, the main generator serving Mackenzie and Wismar. Sawmills have been asked to operate outside peak hours. The Linden Electricity Company says it is in discussions with its supplier for additional immediate generation, and GPL and LECI have signed a memorandum to inject **15 megawatts** of clean energy into Linden. Set against that, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told his weekly press conference at Freedom House that GPL now has **more power than is needed** and that no outages caused by shortages should be expected. APNU parliamentarian **Sharma Solomon** has said the evidence shows poor government planning drove the recent electricity problems, a charge the administration rejects, attributing higher demand to hot El Niño weather and to expanded business and housing activity. A one megawatt shortfall in Linden, sawmills running at night, and a surplus announced from Georgetown. [Forecasters have put a 69 per cent chance on a record El Niño](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/noaa-puts-a-69-chance-on-a-record-el-nino-the-last-comparable-one-cut-guyanas-rice-crop-by-37/), which is the weather the government cites and the condition under which demand for cooling rises. Meanwhile the money continues to arrive. [Guyana's share of Stabroek production reached 39.8 per cent this month, because a cost bank was recovered rather than because any term changed](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-stabroek-cost-recovery-errea-wittu-2026/). And [households have not waited for the plant](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/electronic-wizard-solar-tech-guyana-solar-installer/). ### Text equivalent of the title card Every data point shown on the title image, with its source. - **Gas-to-Energy: one turbine, 57 MW, by end 2026\. Full 300 MW expected mid-2027.** The 50 per cent bill reduction does not apply until full capacity. Source: Prime Minister Mark Phillips, reported by Kaieteur News, 15 August 2026. - **Original promise: year-end 2024 startup.** - **Two plants initially priced at US$759 million. Delay costed at about US$884 million more**, driven by heavy fuel oil, powership rentals and a legal dispute. **The US$619 million heavy fuel oil bill is inside that US$884 million, not additional to it.** Source: Kaieteur News, 28 May 2026. - **GPL base fuel bill GY$47 billion a year, about US$18.78 million a month, 93 per cent heavy fuel oil.** **Fuel import costs up 74.8 per cent since the start of 2026**, per the Prime Minister, taking the monthly bill above **US$32.83 million**. - **GPL system losses 25.43 per cent in 2025**, against a **22.43 per cent** target and **24.71 per cent** in 2024\. About **12 percentage points commercial**. PUC assesses roughly **30 per cent efficiency**. Source: Public Utilities Commission. - **Grid programme US$4.869 billion over five years; Budget 2026 allocates GY$66.2 billion** to transmission and distribution. - **GPL Development and Expansion Plan 2026-2030:** smart grid impact on losses is "neither immediate nor linear" and may "create the appearance of persistent or even elevated losses". - **LCDS 2030: over 30 MW of decentralised systems for hinterland electrification**, against a **97 per cent** fossil fuel import dependency. - **Solar Home Energy Systems: 30,000 target exceeded by 7,000\. Over 37,000 homes, about 4.8 MW, some 140,000 people, 245+ communities.** Coastal grid-connected programme target: **5,000 households**. - **Rooftop for every household: US$486 million to US$1.27 billion**, on 271,946 households and 175 kWh a month. Source: La Caribeña News, 17 August 2026. - **Linden: demand 15.1 MW against about 14.1 MW supplied.** ### The cost of waiting | | US$ | | -------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------- | | Two gas plants, initial price | 759 million | | Delay overrun (includes fuel, powerships, legal dispute) | \~884 million | | of which heavy fuel oil, two years | 619 million | | Paid to contractor over legal dispute | 97 million | | **Trajectory** | **\~1.64 billion** | | Rooftop system for all 271,946 households | 486 million to 1.27 billion | ### Losses against target | | 2024 | 2025 | 2025 target | | ----------------- | ------ | ---------- | ----------- | | GPL system losses | 24.71% | **25.43%** | 22.43% | ## Frequently Asked Questions When will Guyanese electricity bills fall by half? Not when the Wales plant starts. Prime Minister Mark Phillips said on 15 August 2026 that the 50 per cent reduction does not apply until the plant reaches full capacity of 300 megawatts, expected in mid-2027\. The commitment for the end of 2026 is one turbine generating 57 megawatts. How much has the Gas-to-Energy delay cost? The two plants were initially priced at US$759 million and the two-year delay is costed at approximately US$884 million more, taking the trajectory to roughly US$1.64 billion. That overrun is driven by heavy fuel oil imports, powership rentals and a legal dispute, and the US$619 million heavy fuel oil figure sits inside it rather than being additional. A further US$97 million was paid to the contractor over a legal dispute. Are GPL's system losses improving? No. The Public Utilities Commission recorded 25.43 per cent in 2025 against a 22.43 per cent target, worse than the 24.71 per cent of 2024\. About 12 percentage points are commercial losses. GPL attributes missing the target partly to losing trained staff to the oil and gas industry. Does Guyana's Low Carbon Development Strategy include distributed solar? Yes. The LCDS 2030 records over 30 megawatts of decentralised power systems deployed for hinterland electrification, and the Solar Home Energy Systems programme has passed 37,000 households, about 4.8 megawatts across more than 245 communities. Grid-connected rooftop solar on the coast is permitted under net billing since 27 June 2025 and carries VAT and duty exemptions, with a programme target of 5,000 households. Would rooftop solar have been cheaper than the gas plant? The two are not substitutes. This newspaper costed a rooftop system for all 271,946 Guyanese households at between US$486 million and US$1.27 billion, and the Gas-to-Energy delay overrun alone is about US$884 million. But rooftop solar does not supply firm capacity, does not generate at night and cannot on its own hold up a grid. The comparison establishes scale, not equivalence.