The electricity sector in Venezuela is one of the few in the world to rely primarily on hydroelectricity, which accounted for 71% in 2004.
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Electricity production
A gross theoretical capability of hydropower is 320 TWh per annum, of which 130 TWh per annum is considered as economically feasible. In 2004, Venezuela produced 70 TWh of hydropower, which accounts 2.5% of world's total. At the end of 2002, total installed hydroelectric generating capacity accounted 13.76 GW with additional 4.5 GW under construction and 7.4 GW of planned capacity.
Hydroelectricity production is concentrated on the Caroní River in Guayana Region. Today it has 4 different dams. The largest hydroplant is the Guri dam with 10,200 MW of installed capacity, which makes it the third-largest hydroelectric plant in the world. Other hydroelectric projects on the Caroní are Caruachi Dam, Macagua I, Macagua II and Macagua III, with a total of 15.910 MW of installed capacity in 2003. A new dams, Tocoma (2 160 MW) and Tayucay (2 450 MW), are currently under construction between Guri and Caruachi. With a projected installed capacity for the whole Hydroelectric Complex (upstream Caroni River and downstream Caroni River), between 17.250 and 20.000 MW in 2010.
Organizations
The largest power companies are state-owned CVG Electrificación del Caroní (EDELCA), a subsidiary of the mining company Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), and Compania Anonima de Administracion y Fomento Electrico (CADAFE) accounting respectively for approximately 63% and 18% of generating capacities. Other state-owned power companies are ENELBAR and ENELVEN-ENELCO (approximately 8% of capacities). In 2007, PDVSA bought 82.14% percent of Electricidad de Caracas (EDC) from AES Corporation as part of a renationalization program. Subsequently the ownership share rose to 93.62% (December 2008). EDC has 11% of Venezuelan capacity, and owns the majority of conventional thermal power plants. The rest of the power production is owned by private companies.
The national transmission system (Sistema Inrterconectado Nacional- SIN) is composed by four interconnected regional transmission systems operated by EDELCA, CADAFE, EDC and ENELVEN-ENELCO. Oficina de Operacion de Sistema Interconectados (OPSIS), jointly-owned by the four vertical integrated electric companies, operate the SIN under an RTPA regime.