Thursday, March 28, 2024

Logo Central America Link

Summit seeks to strengthen regional energy market

Wednesday, May 18, 2016


 

Doubling the amount of electricity available for transmission among Central American countries was one of the goals behind a commitment by the United States to spend $5 million for a study of the potential options.

A regional grid, which lets countries transmit power across national borders, has a capacity of some 300 megawatts, equal only to about 3% of total Central American capacity.

Even then, amounts actually exported are minimal.

The study was one of the issues raised at last week’s Energy Summit, held in Washington with the participation of countries from Central America and the Caribbean.

In addition, the United States agreed to help boost clean fuels as alternatives to oil, by approving licenses for the export of liquid natural gas to El Salvador and Panama.

The summit also analyzed the option of expanding the regional energy market to include Colombia and Mexico.

The Central American Electrical Interconnection System went into operation two years ago, with the ability to transmit electricity among all the countries of the Isthmus, except Belize.