GEORGETOWN – A sudden blackout that disrupted GuyExpo’s 30th anniversary celebrations on Thursday night has triggered a wave of speculation online, but the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) is pushing back against what it calls “misinformation,” insisting the failure came from inside the venue; not the national grid.
The outage, which plunged roughly fifteen booths into darkness, including its own, on the tarmac of the National Exhibition Centre, occurred just after 18:00 hrs. GPL said its team responded immediately and found that a 50 KVA transformer supplying the affected section had burnt out under heavy load.
“This was not a grid issue,” the company stressed. “Our investigations showed an internal electrical fault at the Exhibition Centre that caused the transformer failure.” In its statement, GPL explained that technicians tried to stabilize the area by installing a 100 KVA replacement transformer.
But minutes after being energized, that unit also failed. “At that point, it was clear something deeper was wrong,” a GPL official said. The team conducted further assessments and found a fault within the facility’s internal electrical network that was sending damaging surges back into the transformers.
The problematic section was isolated, a new 75 KVA transformer was installed, and power was restored by 20:15 hrs.GPL said the incident underscores the need for careful load management during large events, where temporary wiring, booth setups, and additional equipment can push local systems beyond capacity.
“We want the public to understand that the GPL network was stable,” the utility reiterated. “The issue was local to the venue’s wiring and load demand.” A technical team is scheduled to return to the Exhibition Centre today to run more tests and implement safeguards to prevent a repeat during the rest of GuyExpo.
