Venezuela plans to sharply reduce its reliance and hydropower over the next five years while increasing its use of thermoelectric power to take advantage of its hefty reserves of oil and gas.
Venezuela
plans
to sharply reduce its reliance and hydropower over the next five years while
increasing its use of thermoelectric power to take advantage of its hefty
reserves of oil and gas.
Venezuela
currently relies on water-driven hydropower for about 80% of its electricity
supply, while thermoelectric plants only supply 20% of the country's total
output of around 25,000 megawatts. The country wants to change that to a 50-50
ratio by 2015, according to a statement late Monday from state-run news agency
AVN.
"The objective is to balance hydroelectric and thermoelectric
generation," according to the statement.
The oil-rich nation faced severe electricity shortages earlier this year as a
drought reduced the power-generating capacity at its main hydropower plants. The
country's main hydropower plant, the Guri, saw the water level at its reservoir
dip to 248 meters above sea level.
The statement said
Venezuela
aims
to install some 15,000 megawatts of new electricity capacity over the next five
years, of which 12,000 megawatts would come in the form of thermoelectric
plants, while about 3,000 megawatts would come from new hydropower plants. The
total cost would be about $15 billion, or $1 billion per 1,000 new megawatts of
capacity, it said.
While using more thermoelectric power could rescue the country from shortage
risks due to drought, analysts warn that using a larger portion of its oil and
gas reserves for domestic power consumption will reduce its main source of
foreign revenue by cutting international oil sales.
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