Guyana’s Power Line to Halve Electricity Bills Hits 99%
Energy
Key Facts
—The milestone. Guyana’s Gas-to-Energy transmission network, linking Wales across the Demerara River, is now 99 percent complete.
—The payoff. The project is meant to roughly halve electricity bills by replacing costly imported heavy fuel oil with natural gas.
—The plant. A new 300-megawatt power station at Wales will feed the grid, with the first turbine due online by the end of 2026.
—The build. Three new substations are far advanced, and material buying is done. The works logged over two million injury-free man-hours.
—The timeline. All turbines are due by early 2027, with full combined-cycle operation targeted for June 2027.
Guyana has brought its most ambitious energy project to the brink of the finish line. The transmission network for its Gas-to-Energy scheme is now 99 percent complete, putting a long-promised halving of bills within reach this year.
The network is the set of lines and substations that will carry power made at Wales, on the west bank of the Demerara River, across the water and into homes, businesses and industry. It is the piece that turns a power plant into usable electricity for the country.
The update came from the head of the government’s Gas-to-Energy taskforce, in a briefing to the public information department. For a foreign reader, the point is simple. Cheaper, more reliable power is the bottleneck between Guyana’s oil wealth and a broader economy.
Why Gas-to-Energy matters for costs
Today the national utility burns imported heavy fuel oil to keep the lights on, an expensive and dirty way to make power. That reliance has left Guyanese consumers with some of the highest electricity rates in the region.
The new scheme swaps that fuel for natural gas piped from the offshore oil fields. The government says the switch will cut power bills by about half, a saving that would reach household budgets and business costs alike.
The scale of the current burden is stark. The utility has been spending tens of millions of dollars every month on imported fuel, a bill that has climbed sharply as global prices rose.
What is still left to finish
The transmission side is nearly done, but the power plant it serves is not. The 300-megawatt station at Wales is still being built, and both parts must be ready before electricity can flow.
Officials expect the first gas turbine online by the end of 2026, delivering an initial slice of the plant’s capacity. The remaining turbines are due in early 2027, with full efficiency reached the following June.
The project has a history of slipping deadlines. The original expected start date was end-2024, and later delays shifted the project timeline to mid-2026 or later. That history sharpens the meaning of this near-final milestone.
Our reporting has shown that the pipeline itself, completed by ExxonMobil in December 2024, sits filled with inert nitrogen while the power plant is finished—a detail that underscores how the physical link is ready but the system cannot yet deliver gas or power.
The gas itself comes from offshore. It is piped from the Liza field, part of the vast oil complex operated by ExxonMobil, to the Wales plant.
The first stage will not deliver the full capacity at once. Officials expect an initial simple-cycle output of around 228 megawatts before the plant reaches its complete 300-megawatt design later on.
The plant also anchors a bigger plan. A large industrial zone is taking shape around the Wales site, which the government wants to turn into a hub for advanced manufacturing and processing powered by cheap domestic gas.
What is Guyana’s Gas-to-Energy project?
It is a plan to bring natural gas ashore from Guyana’s offshore oil fields and burn it to generate cleaner, cheaper electricity. It pairs a pipeline and a 300-megawatt power plant at Wales with new lines and substations to move the power to where it is used.
When will consumers see lower bills?
Not until the plant itself starts generating. The government targets the end of 2026 for a first turbine, building to full operation by mid-2027. The ready transmission network removes one major obstacle, but the savings depend on the power station coming online as planned.
Why does this matter for Guyana’s economy?
Reliable, low-cost power is the foundation the government is counting on to turn an oil windfall into lasting industry. Cheaper electricity would make local manufacturing and processing more competitive, part of a wider bet to build an economy that outlasts the oil itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much will electricity bills actually drop?
The government says bills will be cut by about half once the project is fully running. This saving comes from replacing expensive imported heavy fuel oil with natural gas piped from Guyana's offshore oil fields.
When will the new power plant start producing electricity?
The first turbine is expected online by the end of 2026, with all turbines running by early 2027 and full operation targeted for June 2027. The transmission network is already 99 percent complete, so the power plant itself is the remaining hurdle.
Where does the natural gas come from?
The gas comes from the Liza field, part of the offshore oil complex operated by ExxonMobil, with about fifty million cubic feet a day piped to the Wales power plant. The plant will have a capacity of 300 megawatts once fully built.
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