Gas to energy project: Citizens could benefit from 50% reduction in GPL rates by mid-2025 – Brassington

With the impending start-up of the Gas-to-Energy (GtE) project, consumers could be seeing a 50 per cent reduction in Guyana Power and Light (GPL) rates by mid- 2025. This is according to Winston Brassington, who is leading on the project.
Brassington was at the time making a presentation on day two of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo 2024. According to him, the Gas-to-Energy project remains on track to have the major components, the pipeline and transmission works, be completed by this year.

“The pipeline and transmission work will be completed this year. The power plant and the NGL (Natural Gas Liquid) plant, using single cycle, will be online by the first half of next year. We’re projecting by April.”
“The culmination of all these projects, a little under $2 billion, will result in a 50 per cent reduction in GPL average tariffs, which we project can happen by mid next year,” Brassington further said.
This is even as the demand for energy in Guyana continues to grow. In fact, Brassington pointed out that based on GPL’s own projections, “by 2030, we will need almost 1000 megawatts of power to meet the constantly increasing demand that we’re seeing.”
While the pipeline and transmissions are on schedule, Brassington admitted that when it comes to the NGL plant, which is supposed to be a combined cycle power plant, there could be some amount of delay in having this reach the full capacity.
“We’re looking at about a four-month delay. Our independent engineer projects that this would be online by April of next year. Of course, we’re working on trying to do the best we can but we have to be realistic. The NGL facility will come online with a single cycle, and the combined cycle will be online by the end of 2025,” Brassington said.
The scope of Guyana’s gas-to-energy project consists of the construction of 225 kilometres of pipeline from the Liza field in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, where Exxon and its partners are currently producing oil.
It features approximately 200 kilometres of a subsea pipeline offshore that will run from Liza Destiny and Liza Unity floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels in the Stabroek Block to the shore. Upon landing on the West Coast Demerara shore, the pipeline would continue for approximately 25 kilometres to the NGL Plant at Wales, West Bank Demerara.
In last year’s national budget, the project received a $43.3 billion allocation, in addition to the $24.6 billion injected into the start-up of the transformational project, for construction of the NGL Plant and the 300-megawatt (MW) Combined Cycle Power Plant at Wales, WBD. This year, a whopping $80 billion was budgeted to advance this project and its associated infrastructure, including transmission and distribution upgrades to offtake the power.
As of January, this year, the marine offloading facility has been completed, and 26 kilometres (km) of onshore pipelines have been installed. Once completed, the project will allow Guyanese to benefit from 50 per cent reduced electricity costs.
As it is now, the demand for electricity has been steadily rising. This year alone, the electricity demand is projected to peak at 236 megawatts; however, GPL can generate approximately 180 megawatts of power.
In 2020, the power demand was around 120 megawatts and this grew to 136 megawatts in 2021; 156 megawatts in 2022; and then peaked at 184 megawatts in 2023. Last year’s peak was recorded when all industrial customers were on the grid.
And with electricity costs slated to be significantly reduced in the coming years, there will be a significant surge in the demand for power in the near future, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had previously outlined.
The cost for energy has long been cited as not only a major bugbear for residential customers, but a hindrance to the commercial customers and the manufacturing sector. Only recently, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) held a press conference where they noted the massive industrialization and growth of the manufacturing sector, that cheaper power would usher in. (G3)