In Guatemala, starting in February 2020, the small and medium-sized commercial, service and industrial businesses that receive EEGSA's service will be charged new tariffs, which will vary according to the schedule in which the companies consume energy.
In Guatemala, interested companies are invited to participate in the energy supply contracting process, which will run for one year and begin in May 2019.
In Guatemala, plans are underway to implement a smart metering system for electricity consumption, where SMEs and residential users will be integrated with small businesses.
Representatives from the Electricity Company of Guatemala (Empresa Eléctrica de Guatemala or Eegsa) announced that within the framework of studies for the New Value Added Distribution (VAD), next year they plan to install smart consumption meters with the option of prepaid payment.
The electricity rates that will apply from February 1 to April 30 are between 1.5% and 2.2% higher than those in the previous period.
The slight increase announced by the National Electricity Commission (Comisión Nacional de Energía Eléctrica or CNEE) in the tariffs corresponding to the February - April period is attributed to higher generation costs that were reported in the previous quarter.
The installation of solar energy systems in homes has been growing in recent years, with the number of self producers registered with Eegsa going from 700 in 2014 to more than 1,500 up to April this year.
Figures from Empresa Eléctrica de Guatemala indicate that the majority of those registered as self producers are in the department of Guatemala, according to an explanation given to Prensalibre.com by Ricardo Méndez, commercial manager of the distributor.
The electricity distributors Eegsa and Energuate are preparing documents for a tender in the coming months of a supply of 420 MW for a period of 15 years.
Eegsa representatives explained that in one procedure 380 MW will be tendered, in which offers will be accepted with any energy source, but there will be a requirement that generators have at least one year of existence or being constituted.
In order to replace the contracts that will soon come to an end electricity distributors are preparing to launch tenders in the coming months for the supply of 380 MW.
It is expected that in the coming months approval will be given by the National Electric Energy Commission (CNEE) for the distributors Empresa Electrica de Guatemala (EEGSA) and Energuate to start the tender processes.In the case of the first entity, the tender will serve to replace a contract with the San Jose plant, which provides 120 MW.
The deadline to submit offers in the tender for the purchase of 122 MW to supply final distribution service users from June 15, 2016 to April 30, 2017 has been postponed until June 1.
The change was made by the National Electric Energy Commission as a result of feedback obtained at the briefing held for Open Tender 2-2016 .
A call has been made for the purchase of 200-250 MW of power for which a tender will be announced mid-year, as soon as contracts have awarded in the tender for the supply of 100 MW, which is still in process.
Empresa Electrica de Guatemala SA (EEGSA) announced that it is evaluating calling for a long-term contract to hire between 200 and 250 MW of energy for the period 2020 to 2035, according to information given to Diario de Centro America by Carlos Rodas, manager of Planning and Regulation at EEGSA.
Empresa Electrica de Guatemala is putting out to tender a supply of electric power and energy for final distribution service users for the period from 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2020.
The tender rules indicate that "... the offeror must indicate in their bid the type of technology used for generation to supply Guaranteed Power and electrical energy to the distributors".
Energuate and Egsa will be holding a briefing on the tender for the supply of electricity for the period May 1st 2016 to April 30th 2020.
Empresa Electrica de Guatemala SA (EEGs) wishes to contract out more than 100 MW annually and the volumes that are to correspond to each distributor are variable, said Carlos Rodas, manager of planning to Prensalibre.com.