July 2025 Vol. 80 No. 7
Features
Plan for single Americas energy network gains momentum amid political push
By Eugene Gerden, Contributing Editor
(UI) — The development of the Americas energy sector will involve integration of regional transmission systems in a single structure with the aim to ensure stable energy supplies to each part of the continent and to avoid power shortages.
Implementation of these plans will be part of a series of initiatives put forward by regional politicians to create conditions for the redirection of the existing surplus of energy from Latin America, (thanks to progress in renewables), to regions of Central and North America. Numerous studies show that in almost all South American countries, hydroelectricity has the largest share (with the exception of Chile and Argentina), and in Central America, thermal energy is ample. This makes electricity the most important renewable resource for the entire region, both in the short and medium term.
Regional politicians are aware of this, planning to gain serious benefits from the supplies of cheap Latin American electricity to the U.S. and the possibility of at least partially replacing Canada in this market, given the existing problems and tariff wars between the two.
One of the top advocates is Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who recently became the president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). He is expected to lobby his idea to promote a clean energy-based electrical interconnection network, which connects the countries of the entire American region.
Petro is known for some controversial statements (such as the proposed solution to combat drug trafficking by legalization of cocaine) and tense relations with the Trump administration (protesting over the ways Columbian migrants were deported from the U.S.). He hopes to speed up implementation of these plans amid conditions of the current geopolitical uncertainties and tariff wars. Part of his plans is to build a transmission network, that will link the U.S. with Argentina.
“We could build a mechanism for so many countries, a strong American electricity grid, from Alaska to Patagonia,” Petro commented. “That is not an illusion; we saw the map of South America and we know that a good part of those networks has been built. We could help the United States by selling that clean energy in bulk, as there is a surplus of such energy in Latin America.”
Steps already taken
In fact, energy interconnection in the America’s is not Petro's exclusive idea. The first step toward interconnection, in 2002, was between Latin American states Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela with the Decision 536 of the Andean Community. In 2012, under the government of Juan Manuel Santos and with the participation of former U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, the Connecting the Americas 2022 initiative was launched.
It was one of the proposals of the VI Summit of the Americas to achieve interconnection between Colombia and Panama – the main obstacle to the entire America’s grid and its key section. Currently, the work is slow due to the financial analysis of the project, but there is still no cost estimate. The entire project involves building dozens of interconnections between countries.
The most important part of the project involves building the Colombia-Panama interconnection – a turning point to integrate the Andean and Central American regions into a single network.
Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha said, “the electric interconnection is not just an infrastructure project; it is a tool to strengthen energy security, harness the potential of our renewable sources, and consolidate Panama as an energy bridge between the north and south of the region.”
The project involves building a 310.7-kilometer transmission system with a transmission capacity of 400 megawatts, using HVDC direct current technology.
According to analysts, implementation of the project will be associated with some technical difficulties, such as Darien Gap, a geographic region that connects the American continents and consists of a large drainage basin, dense rainforest and mountains. Due to difficult terrain, there is a possibility of building an aerial and underwater section of the planned interconnection that would not harm the ecosystem, although that increases the costs and time of the project.
In the past, Panama has been resistant to electrical interconnection with Colombia. However, it is expected the existing barriers will be lifted.
Central America
As for Central America, due to a number of bilateral agreements among regional states, the region has already made serious achievements in its subregional integration. That region consists of seven states with a population of more than 50 million people. Implementation of these plans is important to ensure stable electricity supplies within the region and its connection to Mexico and the North American grid.
Currently, the Central American region already operates its well-developed Central American Electrical Interconnection System (SIEPAC) – the U.S. $500-million system, which was built in 2013 and consists of 1,114 of transmission lines from Guatemala to Panama.
As part of these plans, recently the authorities of regional states, together with the Regional Operations Entity (EPR), SIEPAC’s operator, have developed a long-term strategy for the development of the system until 2050. It also has a significant reduction of costs associated with its functioning – by up to 10 percent, compared to current figures. Within the strategy, particular attention is paid for the integration of the system in both Latin American and North American grids.
That will require significant investments in both transmission networks and technologies that provide flexibility to the system. Analysts of EPR and some independent experts estimate the needed investments at U.S. $20 billion. According to them, that will ensure stability and operational security of the entire system. One of the most important projects involves the expansion of SIEPAC’s interconnections with Mexico, which will allow increased energy supplies to the entire North American continent.
In general, there are plans for building of at least 29 transmission projects in Central America during the 2024-2033 timeframe and expansion of the regional network, to reach a transmission capacity of 450 to 550 MW by 2028.
Mexican authorities have recently announced plans for development and expansion of their energy infrastructure by building several new power transmission lines to ensure stable energy supply in various parts of the country. The project will be implemented by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), the state-owned electric utility, which is the country's dominant electric company, and the country's second most powerful state-owned company, after Pemex.
So far, CFE has begun to develop and define a series of transmission line projects that have already been included in the Program for the Development of the National Electric System of Mexico (Prodesen) and are mandated by the Ministry of Energy (Sener).
The list of selected projects consists of Las Mesas-Jilotepec Power line and Las Mesas-Huejutla II and Culiacan West-Mazatlan Two Line. In general, CFE plans to invest about U.S. $100 million in the building of six transmission lines in different parts of the country within the next several years. It is expected that the newly built infrastructure will be integrated into a single network in due course.
Final parts of the puzzle
Finally, the remaining sections of the single network connecting Alaska to Patagonia will also be designed, financed and budgeted. These include: the northern arc (Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, and the Brazilian states of Amapá and Roraima); Chile, Bolivia and Peru; and Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
In accordance with the existing plans is the design of the entire continental regulatory framework, which involves reaching agreement among the 24 countries to harmonize energy prices with those already in place in each region separately (North America, Siepac, Siesur and Sinea).
In general, analysts believe that under certain circumstances, the energy suppliers from Central and Latin America will be able to replace Canadian exporters in the U.S. market. This is even though Canada is a net exporter of electricity to the United States, and the two countries' energy grids remain highly interdependent.
The United States and Canada exchange energy worth U.S. $95 billion annually, and in some states this trade represents between 5 and 15 percent of their GDP, according to research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Further, the BBC reports that the U.S. imported 33.2 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity in 2024, of which 27.2 million came from Canada and the rest from Mexico.
Although this figure represents less than 1 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption, its impact is significant in certain states, especially those bordering its northern neighbor.
According to an earlier study, conducted by Inter-American Development Bank and independent analysts, the interconnection would generate a 14.7-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a 9.6-percent reduction in polluting gas emissions in the entire America’s region.
So far, building a single America’s grid has been delayed due to political issues. However, authorities involved do expect implementation will be accelerated. According to a recent report in the Colombian La Silla Vacía business paper, it is estimated there are currently nearly 30 million people without electricity service on the continent.
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