Bolivia bets on exporting electricity to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Chile

Bolivia is fine-tuning details to start exporting electricity to Argentina, while it is working on electricity interconnection projects with Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Peru, the Vice Minister of Electricity and Alternative Energies, Édgar Caero, reported Thursday.

“With Argentina, only small details are missing and we will begin to sell energy. Bolivia has studies that define the interconnection with Brazil, Paraguay and Chile, since it has a surplus of energy of 800 to 900 megawatts, the sale of which will generate more resources for the treasury national,” the Bolivian official told Xinhua.

According to Caero, the electricity export capacity is defined based on the generation capacity of a country, so if Bolivia has a generation capacity of 3,800 megawatts (MW) of energy, it can supply internal demand, which is around 1,600 MW, and there are still more than 2,000 MW surplus to export.

The generation companies that are part of the state-owned Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDE), said the official, have executed several projects, with a significant growth in the effective generation capacity, for which the power supply currently presents a higher surplus of 120% of the domestic demand.

In addition, there is a cold reserve of megawatts, whatever the consistency, for which the Bolivian State receives other additional surpluses to market with neighboring countries.

He stated that the binational electrical interconnection projects, which guarantee the electrical supply in a certain territory when the local system cannot generate enough energy to cover the demand, are being worked with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Peru in order to consolidate the regional energy integration.

Bolivia is just about to start exporting electricity to Argentina through the first international interconnection line Yacuagua-El Tartagal, whose regulation and administration details are finalized.

“This is a fact of energy integration between the peoples that will make it possible to guarantee the electricity supply to the neighboring populations of both countries,” he asserted.

According to the Bolivian state-owned Empresa Nacional de Electricidad, the project with Argentina includes the laying of a transmission line of around 110 kilometers (km), of which 40 are in Bolivian territory and 70 on the Argentine side, from the Yacuagua substation, in Bolivia, to the vicinity of the Tartagal substation, in Argentina.

The line is the first international interconnection that the country has and is adapted for a voltage level of 132,000 volts, with a power transmission capacity of 120 megawatts.

The Minister of Hydrocarbons and Energy, Franklin Molina Molina, recently informed journalists about the coordination of a study to analyze the feasibility of an electrical interconnection with neighboring countries.

With Chile, it coordinates within the framework of the Andean Committee of Normative  and Regulatory Bodies of Electricity Services.

Meanwhile, together with Brazil, progress is being made in Binational Hydroelectric Inventory Studies of the Madera River and Main Tributaries, which will make it possible to take advantage of the energy potential of these rainwater areas for the benefit of both countries.

As for Peru, Molina continued, the possibility of establishing an interconnection system between electrical systems is being evaluated, which grants the possibility of selling electricity to that country, as established in the binational meeting of ministers.

According to the authority, in relation to Paraguay, projects are outlined that will help identify complementarities between the Bolivian and Paraguayan electrical systems to seek mutual benefits.

With information from Xinhua