US$422M power grid expansion: GPL forges ahead with groundwork for new transmission lines

– roads being built for new electricity corridors

The foundation works to install the new 69- and 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines from the newly constructed Goedverwagting Substation on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) all the way to Berbice are currently underway.
As part of its expansion and development plan, the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc is undertaking a US$422 million (approximately G$90 billion) project to expand and upgrade the country’s transmission and distribution networks. These works will see new infrastructure being built to facilitate the distribution of power from the highly anticipated Gas-to-Energy (GtE) project to the national grid.

The power from the GtE project, which is expected to deliver some 300 megawatts (MW) by the end of this year, will be dispatched to the Goedverwagting Substation, where it will be added to the national grid and then further transmitted via the new lines. Team Leader of the Executive Management Committee at GPL, Kesh Nandlall, told Guyana Times that the foundation works are ongoing to facilitate the installation of new 69-kV and 230-kV transmission lines.
“These transmission lines will be moving power from Goedverwagting to Berbice, and they are made up of transmission lines 69-kV and 230-kV, as well as numerous substations. So, the lines are not up physically as yet, but we’ve ordered the materials. They are doing the pile driving; then they’re going to do the pile capping, and then they will put up the monopoles or towers to string the lines to transmit power to Berbice,” Nandlall noted.
The multi-million dollar contract was signed in April 2025 for these works. The project is divided into three lots: Lots One and Three were awarded to PowerChina for a combined total of US$256.7 million, while Lot Two was awarded to Kalpataru for US$156.5 million. Among these works is the installation of some 155 kilometres (km) of 230-kV double-circuit transmission lines, which will interconnect the Goedverwagting Substation to a new substation that will be built at Williamsburg, Region Six (East Berbice–Corentyne).
Meanwhile, another 167 km of 69-kV double-circuit transmission lines will be established to replace existing infrastructure along the railway embankment, linking substations along the ECD all the way to Columbia in Mahaicony, where a new substation will also be set up. The new substations at Columbia and Williamsburg are among five new substations that will be built as part of the project, which also includes the upgrade of the Kingston substation in Georgetown – all aimed at improving power transmission efficiency and accommodating future growth throughout the country.

Electricity corridor
In order to facilitate the installation of these new transmission lines, a new road network is being developed from the Goedverwagting Substation in the back lands along the East Coast corridor heading to Mahaicony in Region Five (Mahaica–Berbice). On Friday, the GPL head led a high-level team to inspect the progress of what he describes as the “electricity corridor”. The team conducted a site visit near the Goedverwagting Substation, where the access roads are being built by the Housing Ministry’s Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA).
“We have a 69-kV line on the Railway Embankment. That line has to be removed so that the four-lane [railway] road can be completed. So, we are building a new access road to replace those lines with both the 69-kV and 230-kV. The 230-kV line will run up to Hope, where it will then divert south and continue east to Berbice. So, that 230-kV line will also have its own corridor,” Nandlall explained.
According to the GPL Head, this new road network in the back lands is specifically for GPL to allow access for maintenance works. “All of this will be exclusively for GPL because you’re going to have a high-voltage line running there. Also, we’re going to have to have maintenance for all these things, so that road is a GPL corridor; it’s an electricity corridor we’re building on a road. The power line will be on one side so our vehicles can drive when we need to go and do any maintenance,” he noted. Previously, Nandlall had stated that they would be using smart equipment to take power to Berbice and drop it off at strategic locations along the way – all in preparation for a 2030 smart grid.

Electricity demand
Just last month, the GPL head noted that the country’s demand for electricity is projected to surge by an astonishing 600 per cent over the next five years. Peak demand is now at 236 MW. By 2030, we estimate it to be 1650 MW or one gigawatt [GW], with 650 MW of peak demand output that we’ll have to have generation in place [to meet] … that means a 600 per cent increase in our generating capacity from now to 2030,” Nandlall revealed during a panel discussion at the 2026 edition of the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo (GECSCE) held in Georgetown.
The current 236-MW peak demand is a significant growth from 2020, when it stood at 120 MW – representing an almost 100 per cent increase over the last five years. The GPL head explained that this increase is driven not only by growth in the consumer base but mostly by the rising power demands of existing consumers. In 2020, the state-owned power company had a registry of some 201,000 customers, but that figure has since risen to 244,000 – an increase of 21 per cent. Currently, GPL’s generation output stands at 1485 gigawatt-hours (GWh) compared to 903 GWh in 2020. According to Nandlall, this 65 per cent increase was due to a number of interventions over the last five years to bolster supply to meet the soaring energy demands and keep pace with the country’s expanding economy.
More than 186 MW of firm capacity was installed from the 46.5 MW at Garden of Eden, the 28.9 MW at Columbia, the 36 MW power ship in the Berbice River, and another 60 MW power ship in the Demerara River. These are complemented by a further 18 MW of solar added to the grid. Moreover, the Demerara-Berbice Interconnected System (DBIS), the country’s primary grid that links the western Demerara system and the eastern Berbice system’s generating facilities, currently has approximately 260 MW of firm capacity available. According to Nandlall, this figure is likely to spike to around 285 MW this year.
“We have to now equip ourselves to bridge that gap until the end of the year when the Gas-to-Energy Project will come onstream,” Nandlall stated, adding that this is where the GtE project will play a significant role.
The Guyanese Government has touted this model initiative as the country’s answer to both reliable and cheap electricity, with prices set to be slashed by half when it comes on stream later this year.