Energy in Paraguay - Electricity

Electricity

Paraguay generated 51.8 billion kilowatthours (Bkwh) of electricity in 2004, while consuming only 3.1 Bkwh. Almost all of the country’s electricity consumption comes from a single facility, the bi-national Itaipu hydroelectric dam. Paraguay is one of the world’s largest net exporters of electric power.

Paraguay's state-owned utility, Administracion Nacional de Electricidad (ANDE), controls the country’s entire electricity market, including generation, distribution and transmission. It operates a single hydroelectric dam, Acaray, and six thermal power plants, with total installed capacity of 220 megawatts (MW). The company is also responsible for Paraguay’s share of two bi-national hydroelectric facilities (see below). ANDE operates 2,100 miles (3,400 km) of transmission lines and 670 miles (1,080 km) of distribution lines. Over 92 percent of the country has electricity service.

Paraguay operates two hydroelectric dams in cooperation with its neighbors: Itaipu (Brazil) and Yacyreta (Argentina). The Itaipu dam is the largest hydroelectric facility in the world, though, once completed, the Three Gorges Dam in China will be larger. Itaipu has 18 generators and a total installed capacity of 12,600 megawatts (MW), evenly shared between Paraguay and Brazil. In 2004, Paraguay consumed 16 percent of its share of Itaipu production, exporting the rest to Brazil. Yacyreta, completed in 1999, has 20 generators and a total installed capacity of 3,500 MW. Paraguay consumes less than 1 percent of its share of Yacyreta’s production, exporting the rest to Argentina. In September 2006, Ente Binacional Yacyreta, the binational company responsible for operating the facility, announced that it was cancelling the planned Ana Cua expansion of the facility.