By Mark DaCosta– Our nation’s electricity network has become a target, and the question now is whether the authorities can protect it before the next attack. At about 22:45 on Tuesday, 10 November, two men on a motorcycle reportedly approached the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) substation at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara, and one of them hurled a lit gasoline bomb over the perimeter before both fled. CCTV captured the act. Police now hold one suspect, who says two people carried out the attack and two others planned it. Three remain at large, and a motorcycle believed to have been used has been recovered. The suspect also says an accomplice spoke of another strike in Georgetown “in the near future.”
The escape from disaster owes more to luck than to design. GPL has described the act as deliberate sabotage of its 69-kilovolt switchyard, and says supply was not interrupted. The company estimates that serious damage could have taken at least a year to repair, at a cost running into billions of dollars.
The facility’s importance explains why it may have been chosen. Good Hope is one of GPL’s principal substations, a junction that moves power between Demerara and Berbice. Losing it would have strained the grid well beyond the East Coast. A December 2025 explosion at the same site, whose cause was not given, took the facility offline and left several areas without power for over an hour. That episode showed how quickly one point of failure spreads, and this attack suggests someone was prepared to cause such failure on purpose.
Detectives are treating the warning about Georgetown seriously. Wanted bulletins are being prepared for the three men being sought, and the public has been urged to contact the nearest police station or call 911, 225-6411 or 227-1149, with assurances that all information will be handled in strict confidence.
President Irfaan Ali, in a national security address, said the attackers would be pursued “relentlessly with the fullness of the law,” extending that promise to the “intellectual authors” of the plot. He said intelligence agencies had flagged possible threats to infrastructure beforehand, which allowed security to be strengthened. He added that two politically affiliated individuals had been recorded days earlier discussing how to make incendiary devices.
No names have been released, no charges have been laid, and the claim is untested. Until the evidence is presented, it should be weighed with care, and the country should hold back from conclusions about motive or allegiance. The politically charged atmosphere makes that restraint all the more necessary.
This is not the first alarm. In May 2025, explosions struck the East Ruimveldt Police Outpost and a GPL substation on Mandela Avenue in Georgetown. Police later classified those blasts as acts of terrorism and issued wanted bulletins for three men. Two attacks on power infrastructure within eighteen months suggest a pattern rather than a coincidence. Investigators and citizens alike will want to know whether the same hands or the same networks are involved.
The economic stakes are considerable. Guyana’s growth, driven by oil revenue, rests on reliable electricity for factories, hospitals, shops and homes, and power is the foundation of investor confidence. The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry has condemned the attack and called for a thorough investigation. Insurers, lenders and prospective investors will be watching how the state responds. A visible failure to secure vital assets could raise costs and deter the capital our development depends on.
Security at the substations themselves is also in question. GPL has handed its CCTV footage to investigators and increased security and patrols at substations and power plants across the grid. That is a sound immediate step, but a motorcycle, a few bottles and a few seconds were enough to reach the fence line. Better perimeter lighting, rapid-response arrangements and closer coordination between GPL, the Police Force and community leaders in vulnerable areas deserve urgent attention.
Citizens have a part to play too. Vigilance helps when it takes the form of calm, accurate reports to the police, whereas rumour and finger-pointing do harm. Panic over a threatened Georgetown strike would serve only those who want to disrupt daily life.
Guyana now faces a test of competence and of restraint. The authorities must find the three men still at large, establish who directed the plot, and show that the grid can be defended. The public must give the investigation room to work. A secure supply of electricity is a shared interest, and everyone in this country has reason to protect it.
