Several wholesale Panamanian electricity market players have sounded the alarm over distortions in the balance between supply and demand as a result of the changes proposed by ASEP.
The public consultation to which the National Authority of Public Services (ASEP in Spanish) submitted its proposes for rule changes for the calculation of prices in the wholesale electricity market, resulted in opposing views from power generators and the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama.
As a way of diversifying the energy matrix the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is promoting projects for geothermal power generation.
In the country, 78% of energy is generated from sources which are affected by changes in weather conditions.
"Concern about these changes and how these changes could affect the production of electricity has motivated the decision this year to undertake two studies on the subject", reports Nacion.com.
In El Salvador, power generating companies believe that the proposed reforms would be detrimental to legal certainty and would discourage investment.
Suggested proposals include changing the pricing scheme for power generation based on production costs, amending it to make it related to the procurement of energy under a free competition system with long-term contracts, and changing the frequency of adjustments in electricity rates.
Costa Rican Industrialists have presented the government with an update list of equipment that is tax-exempt because it optimizes energy use.
Agustin Rodriguez, a member of the Institute for Business Excellence of the Chamber of Industries, said the aim is to improve the existing Act 7447, which regulates the rational use of energy by the public and private sectors.
The increasing energy demand and the slow progress of Electricity Act are driving the Government to promote the use of geothermal energy.
The projects promoted by the government would allow geothermal exploitation in the protected areas of Rincón de la Vieja and Tenorio. Studies conducted by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) estimated generation of up to 137MW in Rincon de la Vieja and about 100MW in Tenorio.
The conflict between thermal energy producers and the country's national energy council (CNE in Spanish) has slowed down the search for renewable energy sources.
The CNE's decision to exclude companies generating electricity from oil derivatives from contract tenders has led to distrust and anger among some sector representatives.
While local producers feel are being discriminated against by the new conditions imposed by the government, CNE representatives claim that this is untrue, repeating that the new energy policy has different characteristics that must be respected.
The new electricity bill proposes the creation of a wholesale electricity market for private companies.
This market, to be supervised by Costa Rica's Public Services Regulator (ARESEP), will be guaranteed 35% of total national electricity demand over the next 10 years.
"The regulator must define the sale of electricity through a pricing scale determined by parameters such as the energy source and cost," comments Nacion.com.
A consortium of rural Costa Rican electricity corporations will present their proposal to reform the Energy Law.
The head of the consortium of electricity cooperatives (Coneléctricas R.L.), Erick Rojas, indicated that the lack of government collaboration has led them to propose the bill.
According to La Prensa Libre, Rojas, would not give many details of the content but indicated that while they hope to keep the current model, respecting regulations, they would include the participation of private generators.