Smart grid to help curb electricity theft as GPL’s commercial loss peg at 12%

With commercial losses pegged at approximately 12 per cent, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc is relying on the planned upgrades to the national grid to reduce electricity theft across the country. The state-owned power company is currently undertaking a US$4.869 billion Development and Expansion Programme 2026-2030 to transform the electricity sector. This strategic plan seeks to, among other things, expand power generation capacity, modernise and reinforce the transmission and distribution (T&D) system and implement smart grid technologies over the next five years. According to Prime Minister (PM) Brigadier (Retired) Mark Phillips, who has responsibility for the country’s energy sector, the Government will be relying heavily on smart grid technology to curb electricity theft. “PM – It’s not going to happen now – it’s part of the whole strategic outlook for GPL. In improving or modernising the whole transmission and distribution system, they’re going to depend heavily on ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and available technology to make the grid smarter. So, we will achieve a smart grid over the next five to ten years, and we’re going to reach a point, like in many other countries, where they can sit in a control centre and identify who is stealing electricity and just turn them off with the press of a button. It’s going to happen.” PM Phillips stated during a press conference on Friday. This was after Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar reported that GPL currently records a 12 per cent commercial loss.

GPL’s losses are incurred mainly by two major factors: commercial losses including electricity theft and technical losses caused by power traveling over long distances. Indar had previously reported that the company’s total losses are pegged around 24-25 per cent, of which technical losses account for around 13 per cent. Nevertheless, during Friday’s press conference, the Public Utilities Minister noted that GPL has a dedicated Loss Reduction Department tasked with identifying illegal connections and pursuing those who steal power.
“So, whenever they find people [stealing electricity], they go after them. They have procedures for how they do it. They record it, they calculate the usage, and they conduct back-billing. So, that is an ongoing process,” Indar explained.
When it comes to the technical losses, the planned upgrades to the electricity transmission network will address this. In fact, these works have already commenced with the installation of approximately 320 kilometres (km) of both 230 kilovolt (kV) and 69 kV double-circuit transmission lines as part of its major grid expansion and modernisation project.
According to Indar, “All these transmission lines…they are built to accommodate the smart grid. We’re also purchasing the AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) meters now, which will facilitate that very [monitoring] function that the Prime Minister mentioned.”
Under Phase Two (2026-2027) of the Development and Expansion Plan, GPL is currently installing 20,000 smart meters and an AMI Datacentre. The aim, however, is to eventually provide the entire customer base with smart meters (approximately 285,000) by 2030, replacing the legacy meters.
These smart meters and associated communication networks will enable remote meter reading, real-time consumption data, time-of-use pricing to optimise generation costs and quicker detection of theft or outages.
“The AMI system provides bidirectional communication between meters and GPL’s head-end, enabling remote meter reading, connect/disconnect and instant tamper/outage detection. This will drastically curtail non-technical losses by detecting electricity theft and billing errors in near-real-time and will improve outage management by reporting localised outages directly into the OMS (Outage Management System),” the D&E document states.