Guatemala - Energy and power



In 2001, net installed capacity was 1,694,000 kW; total production in 2000 reached 5,800 million kWh, of which fossil fuels accounted for 50.4%, hydropower accounted for 44.5%, and other sources accounted for the rest. Installations remain inadequate for the country's growing consumer needs. More than 60% of the country (including Guatemala City) are supplied by the former Empresa Electrica de Guatemala (EEGSA) once a US-owned firm, purchased by the government in 1972 for $17 million. Most of the capacity elsewhere is provided by the Electrification Institute. Reversing the nationalization that took place in 1972, the Guatemalan government began privatizing electrical suppliers in 1998 by selling off 80% of EEGSA (now known as DECASA) for $520 million.

A major 300 MW hydroelectric plant on the Chixoy River, which came onstream late in 1985, accounts for a large percentage of total electrical capacity. The remainder is produced primarily by thermal plants, with the exception of a 15,000 kW geothermal plant at Zunil. The 1988 National Electrification Plan called for another 252,000 kW of capacity from hydroelectric plants to be built on the Bobos, Grande, Samala, and Serchil Rivers. The 120 MW San Jose power station, which was completed in 1999 and began operations in 2000, is Central America's first coal-fired power plant.

Although Guatemala is Central America's sole oil producer, a combination of difficult geological conditions, guerrilla activity, poor infrastructure, and the low quality of the oil have dissuaded most oil companies from investment. Guatemala's principal petroleum resources lie in Alta Verapaz, Petén, Lake Izabal, and Amatique Bay, where much recent exploration has taken place. An intensive search for petroleum was carried out in 1975 near the Mexican border, and new deposits were discovered in 1981 in Alta Verapaz and the Petén basin. A pipeline between Rubelsanto and the Caribbean coastline was opened in 1981, but was attacked 17 times in 1991 by guerrillas. Since the end of the civil war in 1996, the government has been granting oil exploration concessions. Production averaged 23,300 barrels per day in 2000, while consumption was 66,000 barrels per day. Guatemala has modest natural gas reserves (3.1 billion cu m in 2001) but no production. At the end of 1999, Guatemala and Mexico agreed to build a $450 million pipeline to export natural gas from southern Mexico to Guatemala.

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Fabiola Ramírez
A query, when was the release of this bulletin?
thanks

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