Peru is at the centre of a new push for electricity infrastructure that could integrate Latin American countries with a Pacific coastline.
Colombia and Ecuador have fully integrated power grids, and Colombia has restarted a project that would link its grid to Panama. That 614KM line would not only integrate the two countries but eventually connect eastern Colombia with the rest of Central America and, potentially, Mexico.
Colombian and Mexican officials met in June 2013 with representatives of the six countries that form the Central American Electricity Interconnection System (SIEPAC) to discuss interconnection. An initial feasibility plan is expected in the first half of this year.
The SIEPAC is formed by 1,800km of transmission lines that connect Panama to Guatemala. Although work remains on creating a fully harmonized system, the integrated regulatory framework, or MER, came into effect last June. Investment in Central America has been around $500m so far, while the Colombia-Panama line will require around the same investment.
Integration to the south of Colombia is dependent on Peru, and there are now signs that something may actually happen.
Peru and Ecuador, which have a cross-border transmission line used in times of emergency, agreed last year to build a 500kV line that would link their grids. Energy ministries have been meeting to co-ordinate the transmission framework and rates. A Peru-Ecuador line would open the way for full integration with Colombia down the road.
The other major change came in January, with the conclusion of a long maritime border dispute between Peru and Chile. The International Court of Justice, the UN system’s highest court, settled the dispute after six years of deliberations. Work remains, but the verdict opened the way for the first serious discussions about integration between the two countries.
An August 2013 report from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) states “the Andean region on the Pacific coast has remarkable scope for electrical interconnection.”
Cesar Butron, head of Peru’s national grid (SEIN), says energy integration between Peru and Chile is economically and technically feasible, “but we first need the political will to do it”, adding that Peru needs there to be investment so it has the electricity to export. Late last year Peru awarded contracts for the construction of two 500MW thermal generating plants for the southern coast, one to France’s GDF Suez and the other to Israel’s IC Power, and private companies from Spain and Colombia won tenders to build 500kV transmission lines from installed thermal and hydroelectric plants to the south of the country and the doorstep with Chile. Combined investment is above $1.6bn.
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