The electricity sector in Venezuela is one of the few in the world to rely primarily on

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

, which accounted for 64% in 2015 (71% in 2004).

Electricity production

In 2015, the total of electricity production reaches 117 TWh, of which 64% comes from hydro, 19% from gas and 17% from oil. Losses however are uncommonly high, reaching 34% of production. In 2015, Venezuela produced 75 TWh of hydropower, which accounts 1.9% of world's total, a small increase over the production of 2004 of 70 TWh . The installed capacity had however in 2012 reached 26 GW from a total of 13.76 GW at the end of 2002, where 4.5 GW were under construction and 7.4 GW planned. The

World Energy Council The World Energy Council is a global forum for thought-leadership and tangible engagement with headquarters in London. Its mission is 'To promote the sustainable supply and use of energy for the greatest benefit of all people'. The idea for the fo ...

energy resource report of 2010 estimates the gross theoretical hydropower production could reach 731 TWh per annum, of which 100 TWh are economically exploitable, an increase over the 320 TWh estimates of 2004. Hydroelectricity production is concentrated on the

Caroní River The Caroní River is the second most important river of Venezuela, the second in flow, and one of the longest, from the Kukenan tepui through to its confluence with the Orinoco River. The name "Caroní" is applied starting from the confluence ...

Guayana Region The Guayana Region is an administrative region of eastern Venezuela. History In the 1970s, after the process of forming the Political-Administrative Regions through CORDIPLAN in the government of Rafael Caldera, the Region of Guyana was f ...

. Today it has 4 different dams. The largest hydroplant is the

Guri dam The Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant, also Guri Dam ( es, Central Hidroeléctrica Simón Bolívar or ''Represa de Guri''), previously known as the Raúl Leoni Hydroelectric Plant, is a concrete gravity and embankment dam in Bolívar State, Ven ...

with 10,200 MW of installed capacity, which makes it the third-largest hydroelectric plant in the world. Other hydroelectric projects on the Caroní are

Caruachi Dam The Caruachi Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Caroní River in Bolivar state, Venezuela. It supports a hydroelectric power facility with a capacity. It is about downstream from the Guri Dam belonging to the Central Hidroeléctrica Simón B ...

Macagua I The Macagua Dam, officially known as Antonio José de Sucre, is an embankment dam with concrete gravity sections on the Caroní River in Ciudad Guayana, Bolívar State, Venezuela. It is upstream from the confluence of the Caroni and Orinoco River ...

Macagua II The Macagua Dam, officially known as Antonio José de Sucre, is an embankment dam with concrete gravity sections on the Caroní River in Ciudad Guayana, Bolívar State, Venezuela. It is upstream from the confluence of the Caroni and Orinoco Riv ...

and

Macagua III The Macagua Dam, officially known as Antonio José de Sucre, is an embankment dam with concrete gravity sections on the Caroní River in Ciudad Guayana, Bolívar State, Venezuela. It is upstream from the confluence of the Caroni and Orinoco Riv ...

, with a total of 15.910 MW of installed capacity in 2003. A new dams, Tocoma (2 160 MW) and Tayucay (2 450 MW), was under construction between Guri and Caruachi in 2003. With a projected installed capacity for the whole Hydroelectric Complex (upstream Caroni River and downstream Caroni River), between 17.250 and 20.000 MW were planned for 2010.

Organizations

The largest power companies are state-owned CVG (EDELCA), a subsidiary of the mining company Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), and Compania Anonima de Administracion y Fomento Electrico () accounting respectively for approximately 63% and 18% of generating capacities. Other state-owned power companies are (ENELBAR) and (ENELVEN) and Energía Eléctrica de la Costa Oriental (ENELCO) or ENELVEN-ENELCO (approximately 8% of capacities). In 2007,

PDVSA Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production ...

bought 82.14% percent of

Electricidad de Caracas Electricidad de Caracas ( BVCEDC is the integrated electricity company for Caracas, Venezuela and surrounding areas, with more than 1 million connections. It was acquired by AES Corporation in 2000 and sold to the state-owned oil company PDVSA ...

(EDC) from

AES Corporation The AES Corporation is an American utility and power generation company. It owns and operates power plants, which it uses to generate and sell electricity to end users and intermediaries like utilities and industrial facilities. AES is headquart ...

as part of a renationalization program. Subsequently, the ownership share rose to 93.62% (December 2008). EDC has 11% of Venezuelan capacity, and owns the majority of conventional thermal power plants. The rest of the power production is owned by private companies. The national transmission system (Sistema Interconectado Nacional, SIN) is composed by four interconnected regional transmission systems operated by EDELCA, CADAFE, EDC and ENELVEN-ENELCO. ''Oficina de Operación del Sistema Interconectado'' (OPSIS), jointly owned by the four vertical integrated electric companies, operate the SIN under an RTPA regime.

References

{{South America topic, Electricity sector in

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Electricity production

Organizations

See also

References