President Ali Warns Oil-Rich Guyana to Brace for More Blackouts

Ali issued the warning on Monday, September 14, during remarks on the country’s electricity situation. He acknowledged that the recent outages are unacceptable and said the power system is under increasing pressure as electricity demand rises faster than the country’s generation and distribution infrastructure can keep pace.

The President said there is currently “no spinning reserve”—meaning the system has little or no immediately available backup generation if an operating unit fails or is taken offline for maintenance.

He warned that the situation is particularly precarious in areas such as the Essequibo Coast, where a failure could have serious consequences for the local supply.