Guyana Power and Light (GPL) is a publicly owned
utility company
A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...
in
Guyana, providing
electric power in the country. Domestic voltage can be 110 or 220 depending on the area, both 50 and 60 cycle power.
Services are provided from
Charity
Charity may refer to:
Giving
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing
* C ...
to
Moleson Creek
Moleson Creek is a community on the Corentyne River in the East Berbice-Corentyne region of Guyana, and home to the Guyana-Suriname ferry stelling. It is north of Orealla Mission, south of Corriverton
Corriverton is the most easterly town in ...
, including the islands of
Leguan and
Wakenaam in the
Essequibo River
The Essequibo River ( Spanish: ''Río Esequibo'' originally called by Alonso de Ojeda ''Río Dulce'') is the largest river in Guyana, and the largest river between the Orinoco and Amazon. Rising in the Acarai Mountains near the Brazil–Guyana b ...
.
GPL has power stations at
Sophia, Georgetown, in Onverwagt (West
Berbice) as well as facilities in
Bartica,
Anna Regina, and Fairfield.
History
Before the turn of the twentieth century, power was provided by private entities, particularly in Georgetown and
New Amsterdam, Guyana
New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam) is the regional capital of East Berbice-Corentyne, Guyana and one of the country's largest towns. It is from the capital, Georgetown and located on the eastern bank of the Berbice River, upriver from its ...
.
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
areas of Linden and Everton (upper Berbice) received power from
Alcan
Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminum manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company, renamed Aluminum Company of Canada in 1925, and Alcan Aluminum in 1966. It took the name Alcan Incorporated in 2001. During t ...
and
Reynolds Group Holdings
Reynolds Group Holdings is a New Zealand based packaging company with roots in the former Reynolds Metals Company, which was the second-largest aluminum company in the United States, and the third-largest in the world. Reynolds Metals was acquire ...
, mainly for their Mackenzie (
Linden) and Berbice-based
bauxite
Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO ...
operations.
The International Power Company of Canada was in operation in Georgetown at the turn of the twentieth century. The Demerara Electric Company was established in 1925 when it purchased the assets of IPC. The British Guiana Electricity Company (BGEC) came into being in 1957, and in 1960 it purchased the assets of the Demerara Electric Company. After Independence in May 1966, the BGEC was
nationalized
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...
and the Guyana Electricity Company (GEC) was established. By 1991, the facilities had deteriorated and the capacity of 253 megawatts of electricity and generated 647 gigawatt-hours of electricity only satisfied half the estimated demand. Blackouts were common.
Thirty three years later, the Government of Guyana divested 50 percent of its ownership and control to a UK-based
consortium comprising the Electricity Supply Board International and the
Commonwealth Development Corporation
British International Investment, (formerly CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and Colonial Development Corporation) is the development finance institution of the UK government. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ...
. The
divestiture
In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is a ...
failed and the company once again became wholly owned by the state on 1 May 2003.
The failure of GPL to significantly cut back its technical and commercial losses has been deemed to be largely due to the lack of incentives for efficiency due to its ownership structure. Accordingly, its privatization was expected to generate commercial incentives to improve efficiency, while also enhancing private funding to develop the system. However the privatized venture failed to deliver the results expected and, after a few years returned to Government ownership. A future re-privatization of GPL is unlikely to occur before the regulatory and institutional framework of the sector is improved.
Generator maintenance was contracted out to
Wärtsilä
Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technolo ...
until 2018 when the role was handed over to Power Producers and Distribution Inc.
References
{{Guyana topics
Electric power companies of Guyana