> ## 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. # Guyana Has Pitched Itself as a Regional Data Centre Hub. The Load Uruguay Has Already Signed Is Twice Guyana's Entire Peak Demand. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-regional-data-centre-hub-ambition-244mw-peak-demand-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-25T18:38:07.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-01T05:19:56.000Z - Description: President Irfaan Ali discussed US support for developing Guyana into a regional data centre hub with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington on 21 October 2026. The statement named no megawatts, no company and no date. Guyana's recorded peak demand is 244 megawatts. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Guyana, Technology, Energy, Business **Quick summary:** President Irfaan Ali discussed US support for developing Guyana into a regional data centre hub with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington on 21 October 2026\. The statement named no megawatts, no company and no date. Guyana's recorded peak demand is 244 megawatts, and the grid has no spinning reserve. By LCN Wire A data centre is a customer before it is an industry, and what it buys is electricity. ## What was actually agreed? A direction, with no figure attached to it. [INews Guyana](https://inewsguyana.com/guyana-us-explore-investment-in-oil-and-gas-data-centres/?ref=lacaribenanews.com), carrying a Department of Public Information release, reported that President Irfaan Ali held talks in Washington with the United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, on oil and gas exploration, infrastructure, agriculture, housing and technology. The relevant line: "The talks further examined US support for developing Guyana into a regional data centre hub and advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and technology." The President said this would create opportunities for Guyanese professionals and businesses while "positioning our country as a major player in the hemisphere's digital economy." [Rio Times Online](https://www.riotimesonline.com/us-investment-in-guyana-lutnick-talks-october-2026/?ref=lacaribenanews.com) pinned the meeting to Wednesday 21 October, with the release published on Friday 23 October, and set out what the statement does not contain: "The statement gave no dollar amounts, company names or dates for any project." It also reported that everything known about the meeting comes from the Guyanese side, and that it found no separate readout from the US Commerce Department. ## What size of load is a data centre? Large enough that the question is answered in megawatts, not dollars. La Caribeña News has reported two Caribbean and South American governments signing this kind of load in the past three months. Uruguay [signed 500 megawatts of data centres against a grid that peaked at 2,507](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/uruguay-solaria-500mw-data-centres-peak-demand-2026/) last year. Trinidad [signed up 800 megawatts while its gas utilisation fell](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/trinidad-data-centres-golconda-gas-allocation-2026/). | | Signed data centre load | National grid peak | Load as a share of peak | | ----------------------- | ----------------------- | ------------------ | ----------------------- | | **Uruguay** | 500 MW | 2,507 MW | 20 per cent | | **Trinidad and Tobago** | 800 MW | Not published here | Not calculable | | **Guyana** | **None stated** | **244 MW** | **Not applicable yet** | The comparison that matters runs across the rows rather than down them. Uruguay's signed load is one fifth of a grid that is ten times the size of Guyana's peak. Set the same 500 megawatts beside Guyana's 244 and it is twice the entire country's maximum demand, which is why the megawatt figure is the first thing a hub pitch has to carry and the one thing this statement does not. ## What does Guyana's grid look like underneath the pitch? Short of reserve, and renting its margin. Guyana's recorded peak demand was 244 megawatts when the state utility cited it in August. The President has said there is no spinning reserve left on the grid and that a number of generators have exceeded or are approaching their maintenance schedules. The margin is currently rented. Guyana takes 96 megawatts from two floating plants at a rental of 9.5 US cents a kilowatt hour, and La Caribeña News calculated that [a unit really costs about 19 cents once the fuel the state buys itself is added](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-third-powership-costs-puerto-rico-energy-choice-2026/). Georgetown [went dark five days after the utility said it had enough power](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/gpl-blackout-news-conferences-interenergy-2026/). A data centre is not a factory that can run a night shift when the grid is easy. It is a constant draw with an availability guarantee attached, which is the opposite of a system with no reserve. ## Where would the power come from? The gas plant, which is already in the stated plan and is late. The data centre is not a new idea in the government's own account of the gas project. The resource ministry has described gas at Wales supporting [600 megawatts alongside a fertiliser plant and a data centre](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-wales-600mw-gas-bharrat-mineral-inventory-2026/), when the project under construction is 300. That plant's contractor committed in a settlement to [first power by the end of 2026, with penalties the government can reinstate](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-lindsayca-wales-97-million-settlement-first-power-deadline-2026/), and the Prime Minister has said bills will not halve until it runs at full capacity. So the generation a hub would draw on is the generation a Guyanese manufacturer is already waiting for, and the two uses compete for the same megawatts on the same timetable. ## What would a Guyanese business get from a hub? On what has been stated, connectivity and procurement, neither of them quantified. The President's account names opportunities for Guyanese professionals and businesses. What a firm could actually transact with is narrower and worth separating out. A hub implies construction contracts, electrical and civil works, cooling and fit-out, security and facilities management, and afterwards a small permanent headcount, because data centres employ few people for the capital they absorb. The durable local benefit in comparable projects is the connectivity that arrives with them rather than the jobs inside them. None of that has a number against it here, and the absence is the point rather than a criticism of the ambition. A hub pitch becomes a business opportunity for local suppliers at the moment a load, a site and a timetable exist, because those are what a contractor bids against. ## What should a firm watch? Four things, each of which converts the ambition into something checkable. A megawatt figure, because it sizes everything else. A named operator, since the hyperscale market is small and each buyer has its own power and water requirements. A site, which determines whether the load sits behind the Wales plant or on the existing grid. And a power price, because a data centre operator negotiating in Guyana would be pricing against a rented margin at about 19 cents a unit and a gas plant that has not yet produced one. Until those exist, the pitch is a direction of travel. Uruguay and Trinidad have signed numbers. Guyana has named a sector. ### The entities - **Irfaan Ali** is the President of Guyana, who discussed the data centre ambition in Washington. - **Howard Lutnick** is the United States Secretary of Commerce, who the release says reaffirmed American interest in investing in Guyana. - **Department of Public Information (DPI)** issued the account of the meeting that Guyanese outlets carried. - **Guyana Power and Light (GPL)** is the state utility whose recorded peak demand is 244 megawatts. - **Spinning reserve** is the generating capacity running but unloaded that a grid holds against a sudden loss, which the President has said Guyana no longer has. - **Wales** is the site of the 300 megawatt gas plant under construction that the resource ministry has described as supporting a data centre. ### What the title card shows Every data point on the article's title card, in text. - **244 megawatts.** Guyana's recorded peak demand, cited by GPL in August. Source: La Caribeña News, September 2026, from Kaieteur News. - **500 megawatts.** The data centre load Uruguay has signed. Source: La Caribeña News, October 2026. - **2,507 megawatts.** Uruguay's grid peak last year. Source: as above. - **800 megawatts.** The data centre load Trinidad and Tobago has signed up. Source: La Caribeña News, August 2026. - **21 October 2026.** The date of the Washington meeting. Source: Rio Times Online. - **96 megawatts.** The capacity Guyana currently rents from two floating plants. Source: La Caribeña News, September 2026. - **None stated.** The megawatt figure, company name, site and date in the Guyanese statement. Source: Rio Times Online, and the DPI release itself. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What did Guyana and the United States discuss about data centres? A Department of Public Information release says President Irfaan Ali and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick examined US support for developing Guyana into a regional data centre hub and advancing artificial intelligence, during talks in Washington on 21 October 2026 that also covered oil and gas, infrastructure, agriculture and housing. ### How big is the proposed data centre load? No figure has been published. Rio Times Online reported that the statement gave no dollar amounts, company names or dates for any project, and that it found no separate readout from the US Commerce Department. ### Can Guyana's grid carry a data centre hub? Not on current capacity without new generation. Guyana's recorded peak demand is 244 megawatts, the President has said there is no spinning reserve left, and 96 megawatts of the supply is rented from two floating plants. For comparison, the load Uruguay has signed is 500 megawatts. ### Where is the power expected to come from? The resource ministry has described gas at Wales supporting 600 megawatts alongside a fertiliser plant and a data centre, against a project under construction of 300 megawatts whose contractor committed to first power by the end of 2026. ### What would a local business gain? On what has been stated, construction and fit-out contracts during the build, facilities and security work afterwards, and the connectivity that arrives with such projects. Data centres employ few people relative to the capital they absorb, and no load, site or timetable has been published against which a local supplier could bid.