El Niño phenomenon reduces electricity generation in Central America

The El Niño weather phenomenon began to reduce the generation of hydroelectric power in the Central American countries, the Regional Operating Entity (EOR), based in San Salvador, assured on Wednesday.

He Electricity Market of the Region has “as a common condition” that El Niño affects your “functioning” due to the low flows of rainwater that reach the “storage reservoirs”, declared to AFP the director of the EOR, the Nicaraguan Rene Gonzalez.

Given the scant rains, according to gonzalezcountries lit “alarms” and some anticipated initiatives to “supply the total demand” internal through purchases in the regional market.

Since the beginning of MayNicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama have taken energy purchase measures” with the purpose of “save hydroelectric energy for the moments of greatest demand towards the future”, he explained.

That decision “increased demand for energy” regionally and “increase“also the price paid”to keep your safety” and provide the service without interruptions.

Honduras is the most affected country on the isthmus due to the lack of electricity. Your state-owned Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica has a schedule of service outages.

On Saturday the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castroacknowledged the serious situation of the electricity supply in his country, where businessmen anticipate a drop in GDP for this reason.

“We know that we are facing (a) serious energy rationing due to low water levels in dams and unavailability of thermal plantsCastro lamented.

Entrepreneurs from the north coast of Honduras, the one with the greatest industrial development, say they have power cuts of up to eight hours a day.

In 2022, with “normal hydrology”, there was a delivery of 3,108 gigawatts/hour, but by 2023 with The boy drops to 2,797 gigawatts/hour, a regional reduction of 10%.

In 2013, with an investment of almost US$ 500 million, the Electrical Interconnection System of the Central American Countries was completed (SIEPAC), which includes 1,793 km of transmission lines from Guatemala to Panama.

At the beginning of May, the countries that injected the most electricity into the system were The Savior with 132,473 megawatts/hour (MWh), Guatemala 56,904 and Panama 15,066. Honduras since May 15, it has injected 3,227 MWh.

As the El Niño crisis progresses, Guatemala purchased 22,884 MWh in May, The Savior 41,621, Honduras 9,569, Nicaragua 48,808, Costa Rica 51,155 and Panama 23,571.

The boy It is a phenomenon associated with an increase in temperatures, a greater drought in certain parts of the world and heavy rains in others.

It last occurred in 2018-2019 and led to a particularly long episode of almost three years of The girlwhich causes opposite effects and in particular a drop in temperatures.

Source: AFP