Central-American electricity

Latin CEO: Executive Strategies for the Americas, Dec, 2001

Endesa of Spain has joined six state-owned Central American electricity generation companies to create a single regional grid that will include a 1,144-mile, 230-kilovolt power line from Guatemala to Panama, and could eventually link to Mexico. The grid will harness the nations' hydroelectric and natural gas resources, and will be owned by a company called Empresa Propietaria de la Linea (EPL).

Endesa will control, and own one-seventh of, the new consortium. The Inter-American Development Bank has financed 75 percent of the US$320 million project. The Central American distributors are Costa Rica's Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), El Salvador's Comision Ejecutiva Hidro-electrica del Rio temp a (GEL), Guatemala's Instituto Nacional de Electrificacion (INDE), Honduras' Empresa Nacional de Energia Electrica (ENEE), Nicaragua's Empresa Nicaraguense de Electricidad (ENEL) and Panama's Empresa de Transmision Electrica SA (ETESA).