What’s with… our watts??

Sunday’s repeated blackouts by GPL had your Eyewitness paraphrasing Henry II’s famous outburst – which led to the murder of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett: “Will no one rid us of these pestilential blackouts??” The torrential rainfall that had flooded his front yard and drowned the flower beds he’d toiled over, had already put him into a foul mood!! Being Palm Sunday, he raised his hands to the (dark) skies and cried out like Jeremiah as his TV screen went black, “My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out to the ground…” how much more can I take??”
But seriously, folks…what’s going on with our electricity supply – which we measure in “watts” – that makes our entire (modern) world literally go around. No “watts” means everything grounds to a halt in the house – including that microwave to heat up his food to chomp on in front of his now darkened TV screen!! We’ve been getting regular assurances from Pressie downwards that GPL’s generating capacity has not only been keeping up with our increased demand due to so many new factories, roads and residences opening up with their fancy lights and all!! (He’s enjoyed the multicolored lit-up BJ Demerara River Bridge when he crossed it the other night in the rain!!)
We’re told that peak demand has jumped from 120 megawatts (MW) in 2020 to 236 MW by end 2025 – a 100% increase!! and heading to 286.4 MW by this September!! The customer base has accordingly expanded exponentially!! Just between 2024 and 2025 the number of GPL’s customers jumped by 51% to 244,000!! And with the government seeing no let-up in demand in our “fastest growing economy in the world”, peak demand’s projected to increase to 1,575 MW by 2030!!
To keep tabs your Eyewitness figures we better get used to the measurements of electricity!! He had to cast his mind (painfully) to his schooldays to remember that the smallest measure is in “watts” – for which he gauges by that 60-watt bulb above his desk!! A kilowatt (kw) is 1000 watts; a megawatt (MW) 1000kw; a giga watt (GW) 1000MW or 1 million kilo watts or 1 billion watts!! So, the 1,575 MW we’re gonna be using by 2030 is also 1.5GW!!
But the billion-dollar question is why the blackouts if – as assured – we’re generating more power than demanded with GPL’s generators and those aboard those two power-ships we’re renting!! The answer- which has been blowin’ in the wind (and rain) for quite a while – is trip-outs on the transmission lines!!
So, are we still gonna be having blackouts after our Gast-to-Shore generators kick in?? O tempora!! O mores!! O Jeremiah!!

…that Cuban blockade?
Yesterday your Eyewitness said he didn’t think the Cuban regime was gonna be replaced like the one in Venezuela – because their political configuration is different and less susceptible to fissuring. Well, it appears the Big Guy in the (Big and getting bigger) White House agrees!! He allowed the Russian tanker with 730.000 barrels of oil to enter Cuba!! Your Eyewitness figures he risked burnishing his snide TACO reputation – but not because he doesn’t want to risk a new crisis with Russia – here with oil instead of missiles!
He’d rolled up the carpet on Russia’s long-term client in Syria – Bashar Assad who’s now throwing-back in some Russian dacha! – and installed that Al Quaida friendly ISIS graduate, Ahmed al-Sharaa – also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julan!! Russia didn’t utter a word!! They weren’t gonna be starting no war in the Caribbean over Cuba!!
So, when we in Caricom cancelled with alacrity that Cuban medical program, did we overreact??
Nah…when yuh haan in tigah mout’…

…donkeys
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday – commemorating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover – by riding a donkey. Your Eyewitness has always wondered why in the Christian world, donkeys acquired such a terrible reputation!! Big up donkeys!!