Guatemala's power capacity tender opens tomorrow

Market: Electricity
30/10/24

Guatemala will open a tender for 1.2GW of power capacity on Thursday.

The power capacity tender will include supply contracts for 15 years. It will have two components, one to add capacity to existing plants and another for new technologies. It will be the first tender of this kind in eight years.

The new capacity is critical as demand is expanding and Guatemala is looking at options to take advantage of opportunities for nearshoring.

"This tender is very important, because demand is increasing while supply has been static," Gabriel Velasquez, director of energy planning in the energy ministry, said on the sidelines of the Latin American Energy Organization (Olade) annual meeting in Paraguay. "We want to prioritize renewables, but the technologies chosen will depend on the economic offers we receive."

The ministry will also launcha tender for transmission lines in December, the first in 10 years. It will include 483km (300 miles) of 230kV, 138kV and 69kV lines. It will also include two substations.

The ministry is simultaneously talking with investors and multilateral development banks to provide power to isolated communities. Velasquez said this could include microgrids and distributed generation using solar technology.

Half of Guatemala's electricity currently comes from hydroelectric sources, with another 45pc coming from thermal generation and the rest from other technologies.

By Lucien Chauvin

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