How often does the power go out in Georgetown? There is a published answer, and it is not the one that circulates. The regulator publishes an annual reliability index, not a weekly count. For 2025 it recorded a System Average Interruption Frequency Index of 86 against a target of 85, and an interruption duration index of 84 hours against a target of 80. Those are the numbers. A weekly count of the kind usually quoted, several times a week, is not published by anyone, and this article will not supply one.
What the regulator published for 2025
Guyana Power and Light operates under a license that requires the Public Utilities Commission to review its performance each year against Operating Standards and Performance Targets. The Commission publishes the scorecard. Its table headed Operating Standards and Performance Targets - Year 2025 records, under Customer Interruptions:
- System Average Interruption Frequence Index (SAIFI): target 85, actual 86, in units of No.
- System Average Interruption Duration Index: target 80, actual 84, in units of Hrs.
Two things about that table you should know, because they affect how much weight to put on it. First, a transcription quirk: the published sheet labels the duration row "(SAIFI)" as well, although the row name and the unit make clear it is the duration index. We are reporting it as published rather than silently correcting it. Second, the Commission assessed eight standards in total: customer interruptions, voltage regulation, meter reading, issuance of bills, accounts payable, accounts receivable, system losses, and average availability.
The Commission's press release of 27 March 2026, following its annual review at Herdmanston Lodge, records that the company itself reported during its presentation that six of the required standards were not achieved, customer interruptions among them, and that it exceeded the targets for voltage regulation and average availability. The company attributed its difficulties to sourcing skilled labour, external interferences with their network and feeder trips. The Commission said it would issue its Order on or before 30 April 2026.
Why a weekly count is not a published figure
This is the heart of it. SAIFI is an annual index and a system-wide average. Taking 86 and dividing it across the weeks of a year would be our arithmetic applied to a national average, and it would answer a question the index was never built to answer. We are not doing it.
It would also mislead you in a specific way. A system average says nothing about your address. Some feeders perform very differently from others — the Commission's own voltage assessment was based on results from nine feeders, not on the whole network — and no per-area interruption figure is published at all. We are therefore not telling you that any part of Georgetown is interrupted more often than any other, because that comparison does not exist in published form.
What you do instead. Before you sign for a property, put these questions to the utility's call center and to the landlord, in writing:
- Which feeder serves this address, and what was its interruption record last year?
- Are planned outages for this feeder announced in advance, and through which channel?
- Is there backup generation on site, does it carry the whole unit, and who buys the fuel?
Guyana Power and Light publishes a call center number and advisory channels, and the Commission takes consumer complaints on published telephone numbers during business hours. An answer naming your feeder is worth more than any national average.
Load shedding as the company's own grid code defines it
If you want to know what load shedding actually is here rather than how often it happens, the company's National Grid Code is unexpectedly precise. Its planning code distinguishes two kinds:
- Consequential load shed is load shed due to direct implication of the fault (e.g. a radial line).
- Non-Consequential load shed is load shed to alleviate an overload.
And it sets a limit on when shedding is permissible at all: Aside for when initiated by protection schemes, load shed shall not be permitted for N-1 events. However, load shed shall be acceptable for N-2 and N-1-1 events. In plain terms, losing one element of the system should not cost you your supply; losing two may.
There is also an automatic mechanism, which is the sharpest published fact in this whole subject. On frequency, the code requires that Frequency shall not drop below 57.7 Hz and shall not exceed 63.0 Hz, and then states: To prevent frequency drops, a load shedding procedure shall be in place where 50% of the connected load is shed at a frequency of 58.0 Hz. That is not a schedule and not a rota — it is a protective threshold that acts in seconds. It is also why a large outage can arrive without any notice at all.
One date to hold on to: the sheet carrying that planning code is dated 1/20/2017. Confirm the current version before relying on any figure in it.
Voltage and frequency: published limits, unpublished nominal
Guides state a household supply figure for Georgetown with great confidence. We could not find the nominal household voltage stated on any page we were able to read, so it is not in this article. Buying appliances on an unsourced voltage is an expensive way to be wrong, and the fix is cheap: ask the utility, and look at the plate on the meter.
What is published is the tolerance around nominal, which is arguably more useful. The planning code treats voltage magnitude as adequate if For normal conditions, there is a +/-5% deviation from nominal and For emergency conditions, there is a +/-10% deviation from nominal, post contingency, and adds that Regardless of the kV base, these voltage limits shall apply to all substations.
Read that together with the frequency band of 57.7 to 63.0 Hz and you have the practical answer for equipment: the supply is engineered to move within a window, not to sit still. If you are bringing anything that minds — a desktop workstation, laboratory or medical equipment, a server — size your protection for that window rather than for a nominal figure.
The tariff, and the standing charge you pay anyway
Reliability costs show up on the bill in two places. The published residential tariff is Guyana Power and Light's class A:
- Up to 75 kWh a month: GYD 39.10 per kWh, plus a monthly standing charge of GYD 341.54.
- Above 75 kWh a month: GYD 43.43 per kWh, plus a monthly standing charge of GYD 351.04.
These are held in our approved reference data as the rates in force since 11 April 2021, from the Commission's published schedules. That is some years old now, so verify it against your own first bill rather than budgeting on it.
The standing charge is the part people miss: it is billed whether or not any power is used. If you keep a property while travelling, or if a long outage means you consume almost nothing, the charge still arrives. We are deliberately not giving you an estimated monthly bill, because that would require assuming your consumption, and that assumption would be ours rather than anything published.
If an outage damages your appliances
This is the published procedure most residents do not know exists, and it has a deadline that runs out quickly. Guyana Power and Light operates a claim process for damaged equipment and appliances. From its published page:
- The form must be submitted within 30 days of the incident.
- You must provide proof of ownership of the damaged property, equipment or appliance.
- You must provide proof of the money spent to repair or replace it.
- Keep the damaged items. Do not dispose of them.
- The company may commission an independent assessment of the damage.
And the limit, in the company's own framing: it states that it is only responsible for damages caused by negligence on our part, and that negligence has to be established. So a claim is not compensation for an outage as such; it is a claim in negligence for damage. Photograph the item, keep the receipt for the repair, and file inside the thirty days even if you expect to argue about the cause.
What expats should know
- SAIFI 86 against a target of 85, and 84 hours against a target of 80, for 2025, as published by the Public Utilities Commission.
- Six of eight standards were not achieved in 2025 on the company's own report, customer interruptions among them.
- There is no published weekly frequency and no published per-area figure. Treat both as unsourced wherever you see them.
- Ask which feeder serves the address and what its record was. That is the question a national average cannot answer.
- Automatic shedding drops 50% of connected load at 58.0 Hz under the grid code, which is why big outages arrive without warning.
- Voltage is engineered to +/-5% normally and +/-10% after a contingency, and frequency to a band of 57.7 to 63.0 Hz. Size your protection for the window.
- The nominal household voltage is not something we could source. Confirm it with the utility before buying appliances.
- File an appliance damage claim within 30 days, keep the broken item, and expect to have to establish negligence.
Where to check
The 2025 reliability figures are from the Commission's published Operating Standards and Performance Targets scorecard, and the review itself from its press release of 27 March 2026. The definitions of load shed, the frequency and voltage criteria and the 58.0 Hz threshold are from the company's National Grid Code, whose planning code sheet is dated 1/20/2017. The claim requirements are from its file a claim page. All read on 24 October 2026. The tariff figures are held in our approved reference data as in force since 11 April 2021, from the Commission's published schedules; confirm them against a current bill.
AI-Generated Content: This article was created with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. Please verify important information with official sources.
