 | This article needs to be updated.(April 2019) |
The electricity sector in Venezuela is heavily dependent on hydroelectricity, with this energy source accounting for 64% of the country's electricity generation in 2021 [1] .
| This article needs to be updated.(April 2019) |
The electricity sector in Venezuela is heavily dependent on hydroelectricity, with this energy source accounting for 64% of the country's electricity generation in 2021 [1] .
The electricity sector in Venezuela is heavily dependent on hydroelectricity, which accounted for 64% of the nation's electricity generation in 2021. Besides hydroelectric power, Venezuela also relies on natural gas and petroleum, contributing 25% and 11%, respectively, to the total electricity output that year. The country operates six hydroelectric plants, totaling a capacity of 16,010 megawatts (MW), with the Central Hidroeléctrica Guri in Orinoco being the most significant, accounting for 64% of Venezuela's hydroelectric capacity. This reliance on hydroelectricity highlights the grid's vulnerability to fluctuations in water availability [1] .
From 1980 to 2000, Venezuela's electricity consumption almost tripled from about 30 to 88 terawatt hours (TWh), primarily met through hydroelectric expansion, while thermal capacity stayed flat. By 2002/03, electricity theft and drought-induced shortfalls led to a mid-2000s policy shift towards enhancing thermal plant capacity, which nearly doubled. Despite the regional trend towards solar and wind energy since 2015, Venezuela's efforts to establish wind energy, with a projected 50 MW capacity, failed to result in operational facilities [2] .
In 2015, Venezuela produced 75 TWh of hydropower, which accounts 1.9% of world's total, [3] a small increase over the production of 2004 of 70 TWh . [4] The installed capacity had however in 2012 reached 26 GW [5] from a total of 13.76 GW at the end of 2002, where 4.5 GW were under construction and 7.4 GW planned. [6] The World Energy Council energy resource report of 2010 estimates the gross theoretical hydropower production could reach 731 TWh per annum, of which 100 TWh are economically exploitable, [7] an increase over the 320 TWh estimates of 2004. [6]
Hydroelectricity production is concentrated on the Caroní River in Guayana Region. Today it has 4 different dams. The largest hydroplant is the Guri dam with 10,200 MW of installed capacity, which makes it the third-largest hydroelectric plant in the world. [8] Other hydroelectric projects on the Caroní are Caruachi Dam, Macagua I, Macagua II and Macagua III, 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.
The largest power companies are state-owned CVG Electrificación del Caroní (EDELCA), a subsidiary of the mining company Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), and Compania Anonima de Administracion y Fomento Electrico (CADAFE ) accounting respectively for approximately 63% and 18% of generating capacities. Other state-owned power companies are Energía Eléctrica de Barquisimeto (ENELBAR) and Energía Eléctrica de Venezuela (ENELVEN) and Energía Eléctrica de la Costa Oriental (ENELCO) or ENELVEN-ENELCO (approximately 8% of capacities). In 2007, PDVSA bought 82.14% percent of Electricidad de Caracas (EDC) from AES Corporation as part of a renationalization program. Subsequently, the ownership share rose to 93.62% (December 2008). [9] EDC has 11% of Venezuelan capacity, and owns the majority of conventional thermal power plants. [10] [11] 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[ clarification needed ] regime. [10]
Bolívar is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital city is Ciudad Bolívar, but the largest city is Ciudad Guayana. Bolívar State covers a total surface area of 242,801 km2 (93,746 sq mi) and as of the 2011 census, had a population of 1,410,964. The state contains Angel Falls.
Ciudad Guayana is a city in Bolívar State, Venezuela. It stretches 40 kilometers along the south bank of the Orinoco river, at the point where it is joined by its main tributary, the Caroní river. The Caroní flows through the city from south to north, dividing it into its predominant halves — the old town of San Félix, to the east, and the newer area of Puerto Ordaz, to the west.
The Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Plant, also Guri Dam, previously known as the Raúl LeoniHydroelectric Plant, is a concrete gravity and embankment dam in Bolívar State, Venezuela, on the Caroni River, built from 1963 to 1969. It is 7,426 metres long and 162 m high. It impounds the large Guri Reservoir with a surface area of 4,250 square kilometres (1,641 sq mi).
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Venezuela has the largest conventional oil reserves and the second-largest natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere. In addition Venezuela has non-conventional oil deposits approximately equal to the world's reserves of conventional oil. Venezuela is also amongst world leaders in hydroelectric production, supplying a majority of the nation's electrical power through the process.
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Energy in Mexico describes energy and electricity production, consumption and import in Mexico.
The Caruachi Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Caroní River in Bolivar state, Venezuela. It supports a hydroelectric power facility with a 2,160 megawatts (2,900,000 hp) capacity. It is about 59 kilometres (37 mi) downstream from the Guri Dam belonging to the Central Hidroeléctrica Simón Bolívar, and about 35 kilometres (22 mi) from where the Caroni and Orinoco rivers meet at Ciudad Guayana.
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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 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) upstream from the confluence of the Caroni and Orinoco Rivers, 81 km (50 mi) downstream of the Guri Dam and 22 kilometres (14 mi) downstream of the Caruachi Dam. The dam's main purpose is hydroelectric power generation and it was later named after Antonio José de Sucre.
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