MARVIN GONZALES WARNS OF AI DATA-CENTRE BLACKOUTS & "WEAPONISED" SOE POWERS | PRESS CONFERENCE 16/07

[00:00:01]Thank you very much MP Hans De Vrees, the member of parliament for Diego Martin West.

[00:00:08]Uh good morning to my colleague from Diego Martin Northeast and my colleague from Malabar Moseca, the honorable Dominic Romain.

[00:00:19]Good morning Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:00:22]This morning, I just want to expand a little on what um my colleague from Malabar Moseca would have already done quite a fantastic job on the implications of the AI data center in Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:00:42]But I want to start by drawing the country's attention to a recent report and I think that report came out today or yesterday from New York and it's headlined New York just became the first state to ban data center construction.

[00:01:03]And please allow me to read excerpts of that report.

[00:01:08]New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order establishing a one-year moratorium on new environmental permits for large data centers that require 50 megawatts of electricity or more.

[00:01:27]This historic action, which makes New York the first state the first state to implement a statewide pause comes in response to the rapid proliferation of infrastructure needed to fuel artificial intelligence, cloud storage, and digital streaming.

[00:01:48]State officials are concerned that the massive energy consumption of these facilities, some of which can draw as much power as an entire small city, perhaps more than the population of Trinidad and Tobago, will strain the local electric electrical grid, inflate utility bills for everyday residents, and deplete vital water resources used for cooling.

[00:02:17]That report came out this 17 hours ago.

[00:02:24]Interestingly, another report came out from the US State Department of Energy.

[00:02:32]The US, and please allow me to quote excerpts of that report.

[00:02:37]The US State Department of Energy has ordered AI data centers to stop drawing electricity from the grid to prevent widespread blackouts.

[00:02:50]As temperatures spiked past 100° F across the Eastern United States, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued an emergency directive to ease unprecedented strain on the PJM interconnection power grid.

[00:03:09]The order targets large-scale electricity consumers, most notably the dense cluster of artificial intelligence and cloud computing data centers in Northern Virginia, home to the world's largest concentration of such facilities.

[00:03:28]By forcing these high-demand tech centers to temporarily disconnect from the public grid and rely on their own backup energy resources, officials successfully freed up crucial megawatts so millions of homes could keep their air conditioning running without triggering severe power failures.

[00:03:51]However, this quick-fix solution highlights a looming conflict between the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure and local environmental goals.

[00:04:01]Most industrial backup systems rely on diesel or natural gas, which emit significantly higher levels of local air pollutants than centralized utility plants.

[00:04:14]Furthermore, with the Mid-Atlantic region lacking the robust battery storage capabilities found in states like Texas and California, grid operators remain highly dependent on fossil fuel power alternatives during sudden demand spikes.

[00:04:33]As the energy demands of artificial intelligence continue to skyrocket, experts warn that similar emergency measures may become a routine test of America's aging energy infrastructure.

[00:04:50]And that article is dated July the 2nd, 2026. Very, very um recent.

[00:04:59]And I'm told that as we speak, a number of protest actions are being planned all over the United States of America with respect to the further construction of data centers in many states in the United States.

[00:05:18]So, it begs the question, whilst all of that is taking place in the United States of America, where there's a push against the establishment and the construction of data centers, given their economic implications, their implications on our electricity grid, on our water infrastructure, and other environmental hazards associated with AI data centers, we got up one morning to hear a major announcement by the government of Trinidad and Tobago for the establishment of two data centers in this country. And the people of this country must ask themselves, what would have triggered that? Because I recall when I served as Minister of Public Utilities, many of these companies would come knocking on your doors for the establishment of these centers, these data centers, AI data centers.

[00:06:11]And there was one fact that attracted them to Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:06:18]Cheap electricity and cheap water.

[00:06:23]In Trinidad and Tobago, because of PNM governance over the last how many years, we have subsidized the cost of water and electricity for the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:06:38]It assisted our manufacturing sector to allow for the production of goods and services that we export throughout the region and throughout the world, lowering the cost of manufacturing in this country.

[00:06:51]It allowed us to open our schools, our health facilities, and our homes, so that the most vulnerable in our citizen in in in our population can have access to water and electricity at subsidized cost to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars over the years.

[00:07:13]Of course, that reality would attract many international companies like um persons who invest in AI data centers.

[00:07:22]So, their main focus and their main reason for coming to Trinidad and Tobago is to benefit from cheap electricity or subsidized electricity and subsidized water.

[00:07:36]Oh, let me give you an example of what is the current state of and Tobago electricity grid. But before I do that, you would recall between the period 2020 and 2025, the last P&M administration undertook a comprehensive review for the transformation of the Water and Sewerage Authority.

[00:08:01]And the Regulated Industries Commission started a review process to review the rates of electricity for T&TEC.

[00:08:14]The transformation of WASA took quite some years to put together because the P&M believed the P&M believed that in order for WASA to continue to survive as our sole water utility agency and to support economic development in Trinidad and Tobago as well as for our citizens to have access to clean portable water, WASA can no longer function in the way that it functioned over the last 25 or 30 years or even more.

[00:08:54]And in order to prepare that utility company to be able to respond to the challenges for the next 20 years, we undertook a transformation exercise.

[00:09:05]It started with the putting in place of a new executive management.

[00:09:09]And we had already started the implementation of many capital projects in this country that would have seen the production of new water sources, the replacement of aging infrastructure, and some of the other things that the transformation would have recommended.

[00:09:27]The first within the first month in office, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago appeared at one of the very few post cabinet press conferences that she has ever attended since assuming the office of Prime Minister.

[00:09:44]And she ripped apart the WASA transformation plan.

[00:09:49]You all recall that. She appeared with members of the Public Services Association and she ripped apart the WASA transformation plan.

[00:09:58]That plan was intended to improve the operations of WASA so that it can provide support for further economic development in Trinidad and Tobago and to give citizens access to clean portable water.

[00:10:13]With the ripping of that WASA transformation plan, a number of the capital projects that were also already started and were being implemented under that plan came to a crashing end.

[00:10:26]And in that plan, had the Prime Minister take the opportunity to examine some of the proposals in that plan, she would have recognized that the plan was seeking to increase water production in Trinidad and Tobago by about 5 million gallons of water per day in order to supply unserved and underserved communities. 5 million gallons of water per day not to cool data centers but to provide water to unserved and underserved communities.

[00:11:03]Many of those communities, ladies and gentlemen, were in southeast and southwest Trinidad and Tobago. Mayaro, Moruga, Erin and some of those communities.

[00:11:15]Today well, in addition to that the Regulated Industries Commission undertook a comprehensive review of the rates for T&TEC.

[00:11:27]And T&TEC produced a business plan to the Ministry of Public Utilities, which was in turn passed to the Regulated Industries Commission proposing a review of rates in Trinidad and Tobago in order that T&TEC can survive financially because T&TEC was relying on subventions and financial support from the government.

[00:11:53]And with some of the challenges facing T&TEC T&TEC wrote and prepared a comprehensive business plan for review of rates in Trinidad and Tobago so that it can liquidate its debt to the NGC to the tune of $6 billion over a period of 6 years.

[00:12:13]$6 billion T&TEC was owing NGC because the gas is being and electricity is being produced at a subsidiary rate and T&TEC has to pay NGC.

[00:12:24]And that debt ballooned to $6 billion.

[00:12:28]And with the production and the preparation of that business plan it was intended that T&TEC would settle that outstanding debt over a period of 6 or 7 years or perhaps even more without taxpayers and without uh some of our domestic consumers having to face the cost of settling that outstanding debt.

[00:12:50]What did the UNC government do?

[00:12:52]After 3 months coming into office they scrapped the RIC uh rate review process as announced by the Minister of Public Utilities, thereby exposing T&TEC to serious losses in the coming years.

[00:13:07]Where T&TEC will not be able and perhaps will be placed in a very difficult place to provide the people of Trinidad and Tobago with a reliable electricity or supply of electricity that can impact our manufacturing sector, our economy, our schools, our hospitals, and our homes.

[00:13:28]It was destroyed by the United National Congress government. But today, they're announcing to you, the people of Trinidad and Tobago, the establishment of large data centers that would require the availability of water, that will require large volumes of electricity, megawatts of electricity, to operationalize these data centers.

[00:13:55]But, I want to remind you, the people of Trinidad and Tobago, that this is the same government that scrapped plans that would ensure the efficiency of the Water and Sewerage Authority, as well as the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission, to be able to do the same things that they expect those two utility agencies to do by the establishment of their data centers.

[00:14:18]I've explained, and you would have seen, and you would have heard from MP Dominic Gormandy and all members of Parliament, who are experiencing and their constituents experiencing serious problems with respect to the access of a reliable supply of water. And that is because Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her incompetent UNC government scrapped a comprehensive plan for the transformation of the Water and Sewerage Authority. And as I did 1 year ago, that the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago will feel the implications, not perhaps 1 year after the scrapping of that plan, they will feel the implications when they begin to suffer from a lack of access to a reliable supply of water.

[00:15:05]And this is happening all now.

[00:15:07]Let me go to telling you the state of the electricity grid in Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:15:20]Most of the power and the electricity supplied to T&TEC are produced by independent power producers.

[00:15:29]PowerGen in Point Lisas, PowerGen in Penal, Trinity, Cove Power Plant, and some other smaller standby units.

[00:15:42]Those plants produce a combined total of 1,000 or rather, with a capacity of 2,140 MW of electricity. They have a capacity to produce that. But, because of aging infrastructure, and I want you to listen carefully, because of aging infrastructure, they produce somewhere in the region of 1,800 to 1,900 MW of electricity.

[00:16:19]per day.

[00:16:21]The peak demand The peak demand in Trinidad and Tobago at this point in time is 1,350 MW of electricity per day.

[00:16:34]With spinning reserves, and you need to have spinning reserves in order to treat with shortfalls and machines um not working on a daily basis. So, T&TEC is required to have a spinning reserve of about 150 MW of power or electricity on a daily basis. And that is in addition to the 1,350 MW of electricity per day.

[00:17:01]With a total generation dispatch at peak of 1,500 MW of electricity per day. Remember, I told you there is a generation capacity at this point of 1,850 845 MW of electricity uh per day.

[00:17:24]I want you know to add approximately 500 megawatts of electricity per day by the establishment of these data centers. Taking into consideration that you need to have your spinning reserves of 150 megawatts of electricity per day.

[00:17:45]Because if you don't have access to the spinning reserves, then if any machine collapses on a daily basis for one reason or the other, you can have massive blackouts in Trinidad and Tobago on a regular basis. And one of the reason why we don't have or experience blackouts is because we have spinning reserves. When a machine um falls apart or is not working, we have spinning reserves and we on the outer end will not feel the impact of a machine falling out of operation because T&TEC generates um 150 megawatts of electricity um as um for spinning reserves.

[00:18:26]Now, let me take you through this.

[00:18:29]In the short term, power balance is achieved achieved through unit commitment and economic dispatch with reserve scheduling supporting the accommodation of unforeseen power variation.

[00:18:43]What is unit commitment?

[00:18:46]It decides which generating units should be turned on or off for the upcoming hours of the day.

[00:18:54]It ensures enough capacity is online to meet forecasted demand plus your reserves.

[00:19:01]And in Trinidad, this means scheduling gas-fired plants, like for example, in Penal and Point Lisas and TGU before firing up those plants that rely heavily on oil and diesel.

[00:19:15]So, the first option is to utilize as much as possible those gas-powered plants in TGU because they are more energy-efficient.

[00:19:26]And your last option will be to fire up those plants that rely rely, rather, on oil and diesel.

[00:19:35]Then you have your economic dispatch. It determines how much each committed unit should generate at any given time based on cost efficiency.

[00:19:46]The cheaper efficient combined cycle plants are dispatched first, for example, those plants at TGU, and the more expensive or less efficient units that depend on diesel and oil are dispatched only if demand rises.

[00:20:01]And then you have your reserve scheduling. It ensures extra capacity, spinning reserves is online, and synchronized ready to respond instantly to sudden changes on the electricity grid.

[00:20:15]Reliability risk. Trinidad moves from a comfortable margin of 350 MW to a narrow one of 120 MW. This is still technically adequate, but leaves little room for unexpected industrial growth or plant reserves.

[00:20:33]So, any investment signal that requires over 200 MW, for example, the AI load, would immediately trigger the need for new generation capacity. That's a plant. An AI data center of 200 MW of electricity would require almost immediately the establishment of a new plant or new plants in Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:21:01]And let us know put a scenario forward that you have one plant or two plants that require 500 MW of AI demand of electricity on a daily basis.

[00:21:16]Ladies and gentlemen, this is your scenario.

[00:21:22]Your new peak demand will move from 1,350 MW per day to 1,850 MW per day. Remember, as I told you, the independent power producers currently producers 1,845 MW of electricity per day.

[00:21:46]So, with the establishment of AI data centers that may require 500 MW of electricity per day, you almost don't have any spinning reserve in the event that any of the plants go out of operation.

[00:22:04]Your total dispatch peak, therefore, will move from 1,500 or 1,300 per day to 2,050 MW of electricity per day.

[00:22:20]The independent power producers, all of them, their daily output capacity is somewhere around 1,800 MW of electricity per day.

[00:22:33]And with the proposed implementation of any AI data center that would require 500 MW of electricity per day, your total dispatch at peak will be 2,050 MW of electricity with a dependable capacity available at this point in time to 1,850 MW of electricity today.

[00:22:57]You understand what we are faced with.

[00:22:59]The government is selling pie in the sky.

[00:23:04]Because currently currently our utility grid cannot accommodate what the government is proposing in the construction of two AI data center. Let me give you the implications.

[00:23:18]Reserve margin will collapse.

[00:23:22]And if you are in the UNC, you wouldn't say collapse, you would say collapse.

[00:23:26]The system would be overstretched.

[00:23:29]Demand plus reserve of 2050 exceeds dependable capacity of 1,850.

[00:23:37]So, it will be overstretched by 200 MW of electricity per day, meaning that you can't produce that at this point in time.

[00:23:45]Unit commitment, all major plants at Penal, Point Lisas, TGU, Cove, standby, all diesel would need to be committed daily.

[00:23:55]No flexibility remains for maintenance and outages. So, if you have to shut down some of those units in order to undertake maintenance on a daily basis, you cannot shut down any.

[00:24:06]Because the minute you shut down any one of them, there will be widespread national blackout in Trinidad and in Tobago.

[00:24:13]Your economic dispatch, less efficient and more costly units will run continuously, increasing fuel cost and emissions.

[00:24:22]Reliability risk is single large turbine outage of 200 to 300 MW would cause an immediate shortfall shortfall, risking blackouts.

[00:24:33]Investment necessity, a sustained 500 MW of AI load would require new generation capacity either through new gas turbines, large-scale renewable, or storage to restore reserve margins.

[00:24:50]And of course, it would require the expenditure of millions of dollars in upgrading your electricity grid, the production of transformers, etc. and new substations.

[00:25:05]So, from a utility perspective, I want to ask the Minister of Public Utilities to stop the lack of performance, get down to understanding his job, and to advise the government advise the government properly with respect to whether or not Trinidad and Tobago, as we stand at this point in time, from a water perspective and from an electricity perspective, that can accommodate or support the establishment of AI data centers.

[00:25:39]On the last point I want to raise is the crime situation in this country.

[00:25:46]I don't want to spend much time on it, but it is very important. We are in a state of public emergency for over a year by this government.

[00:25:58]The government has been unable to contain the murder rate.

[00:26:03]And I am told, as of this morning, the murder toll is somewhere in the region of 205, almost on the same level um at this time in 2025.

[00:26:16]The government has called a state of emergency, and according to them, to treat with specific threats and to reduce murder.

[00:26:25]This state of emergency has absolutely no effect whatsoever on the operations of gangs and on reducing the murder rate in this country. As a matter of fact, those criminals who are perpetrating murders on our population, they don't care about the state of emergency. They It is business as usual for them.

[00:26:49]And what in fact has happened in this country, especially over the last 6 months with the conduct of the Prime Minister and her Attorney General. It is innocent citizens are now living in fear as a result of the state having excessive powers that they have given to themselves under the state of emergency.

[00:27:08]Nobody wants to speak on their phone anymore. Nobody wants to go on social media to exercise their democratic rights and their right to free speech to criticize who they elect to government.

[00:27:19]People are living in fear to exercise those cherished democratic traditions. I recall as Minister and I'm sure Mr. Imbert would recall and Dr. Rowley as Prime Minister and some of our colleagues who would have served in the last government the UNC government and some of their spokespersons spent almost every day cussing us on social media, saying and calling us the most derogatory terms on social media.

[00:27:49]And I I'm surprised that 1 year after electing the UNC into government having cursed the PNM every single day for the last 10 years, we as citizens are now afraid to come out and criticize ministers of government because they believe that if they do so PDOS can be issued where they can be detained without charge for as long as we have state of emergency in Trinidad and Tobago. I'm saying today today that criminals no longer fear the state of emergency.

[00:28:26]It is not containing murders. It is not containing home invasions and other serious crimes in this country.

[00:28:33]As a matter of fact, quite in the reverse.

[00:28:36]Citizens are now the victims, innocent citizens, are now the victims of this unjustified and unconstitutional state of emergency in Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:28:49]Look at what has happened in this particular matter.

[00:28:53]Where three police officers three police officers are accused of stealing $250,000 after searching someone's um premises in Claxton Bay.

[00:29:08]I'm told it's the home of a scrap iron dealer.

[00:29:14]Nothing illegal was found on the premises.

[00:29:18]And after the owner of the home or the occupant of the home made a report that $250,000 was stolen from his property.

[00:29:32]And shortly after the police utilizing emergency powers issued a detention order for this person who made a report against three police officers who stole allegedly stole uh $250,000 cash from his home.

[00:29:56]Signed by the Minister of Homeland Security.

[00:30:00]That is an example of what I am telling you the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago today.

[00:30:07]That the powers of the state of emergency the powers of the state of emergency is are no longer being used and perhaps it never did to contain crime to arrest and prosecute persons who are involved in gang operations and illegal activities and criminal activities in Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:30:29]PDOs are now being used to silence and to unjustifiably incarcerate innocent citizens in Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:30:40]And this is just the latest example of the government using PDUs by persons who for one reason or the other may be uncomfortable to the police.

[00:30:51]Because I am told that there's currently a case before the courts where someone issued a famous businessman issued a pre-action protocol letter against the government over a land dispute. And days after the issuance of that pre-action protocol letter against the state a PDU was issued for his detention and the detention of his family.

[00:31:17]Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, let me say once again the state of emergency is not having any impact on curtailing crimes, in curtailing murders and home invasions in Trinidad and Tobago. As a matter of fact the state of emergency is now being weaponized by the government to get at their detractors.

[00:31:41]And it is only when we come together and use the available powers that we have under the constitution it is only when we come together as a country and to invoke whatever powers that are available to us under the constitution it is only when that happens this nonsense will come to an end in this country. But please, do not lose hope.

[00:32:10]But by coming together, we can bring an end to this travesty that has now befallen the people of Trinidad and Tobago. I thank you.