Six-nation power line to be ready in early next year

Panama said a 1,110 miles electricity transmission line serving 37 million people across six Central American countries should be operational by the first quarter of next year.

The Siepac line was first proposed more than two decades ago and was meant to be completed in 2006, but it has suffered repeated delays. It will connect consumers in Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.

"All that remains is for 30 kilometers of cable to be finished in Costa Rica, and then for Costa Rica's Congress to approve one more protocol," Panama's secretary of Energy, Juan Manuel Urriola, told an oil conference.

Original source: Reuters