Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar on Friday said the recent power outages are being driven by weather phenomena, growth in commercial and industrial activity, expanding household demand and ongoing maintenance on the national grid.
Speaking at a press conference, Indar said the rapid expansion in the number of electricity customers has placed additional pressure on the system, with the hot weather further intensifying consumption.
He said GPL’s customer base has grown from approximately 204,000 in 2020 to 250,000, an increase of about 45,000 customers in five years. In addition, approximately 5,000 customers were added between the end of 2025 and July 2026.
Indar said the current weather conditions are amplifying the effect of that growth.
“What the weather is doing today is just maybe amplifying the problem more, as we have seen it in the numbers because of the heat,” he said.
However, he stressed that some outages are linked to work being undertaken to strengthen and expand the electricity network.
He said GPL must temporarily disconnect sections of the grid to replace ageing transformers, extend networks and change conductors.
The ongoing works include approximately 104 kilometres of network extensions and 55 kilometres of conductor replacement.
“When you change a transformer, we don’t have live maintenance. We have to take off the power to do it,” Indar said.
He explained that continuing to operate deteriorating equipment could ultimately result in more serious failures.
Transformers can degrade over time, while overheating detected on sections of the transmission network can indicate that conductors or other components need to be replaced.
“If you don’t, it trips the entire line,” he said.
Indar described these as “forced outages”, since power has to be deliberately interrupted to allow necessary maintenance to be safely completed.
He said GPL has been directed to provide advance notice whenever planned maintenance will result in an interruption, including the expected duration.
Unplanned outages can also result from damage caused by construction activity, according to the minister.
He said cranes, excavators and other heavy equipment operating near utility infrastructure can strike power lines and cause disruptions.
“If somebody goes with a crane and jam the line, and somebody goes on an excavator and jam the line, it causes an outage,” he said.
Indar said such incidents are difficult for GPL to control, particularly as construction activity expands across the country.
The minister’s comments come as the Government works to increase generation capacity while simultaneously upgrading the transmission and distribution network to accommodate rapidly rising electricity consumption.
He said the combination of increased demand, weather conditions, maintenance requirements and external damage means that the causes of outages are broader than generation capacity alone.
