MEDIAWATCH: The Panama energy racket

 
2,111Views 3Comments Posted 05/01/2019

On my way to Las Tablas with the family to welcome the New Year, I found myself passing Penonomé, with the beautiful landscape of the windmills moving in synchrony as if greeting the travelers in the Interamericana writes La Prensa columnist Rodrigo Noriega whose insightful and acerbic weekly “Spicy Saturday”  feature is a must read by a growing number of followers and a morning coffee spoiler for local politicians.

He continues: After a while and beyond Parita, as if they were mushrooms from the ground, a small solar panel farm received the embrace of the burning tropical sun.

Later in Guararé, another farm of these wonderful mushrooms generated clean energy in Azuero.

Even in Las Tablas, some roofs of old houses already fell in love with solar panels.

In spite of all the above, this first semester of 2019, the electricity tariff went up between 14 and 18%, but the increase will be amortized by the State with a subsidy of $120 million.

An estimate published in La Prensa establishes that the subsidy to the electricity tariff since 2004, to date, exceeds $ 1,800 million. This is more money than the annual contribution of the Panama Canal, or the cost of the fourth bridge, or that of a line of the Panama Metro.

It is so much money, that the electric subsidy is the largest subsidy paid by the Panamanian State.

The price of a barrel of oil fell 40% last semester. All thermal generation including bunker, diesel, coal and natural gas became cheaper.

The hydroelectric plants have a good water reserve, that of Changuinola, for example, is six meters above its maximum level.

In addition, the Coclé wind plant is producing energy this summer.

Rotten smell
Gasoline and diesel used by transports have dropped substantially, but electricity has not. Something smells rotten in this whole system.

According to a senior executive at AES, the US electric power company in, the Dominican Republic, will t save $500 million dollars a year for its conversion to natural gas.

The 11 million Dominicans will have a saving equivalent to twice the Panamanian subsidy estimated for the year 2019.

The same executive acknowledged that lithium battery technology already exists to store the solar energy captured during the day, to provide it to customers at night.

Why does Panama have such a deranged electrical system? In case you have not noticed, the main political parties and their presidential campaigns are strongly linked to interests of the energy sector.

That explains why the government of President Varela only made a tender for clean energy throughout his term, while several thermal generations were made.

By 2030, Panama will depend more on thermal sources than on clean energies, which is contrary to our obligations under the Paris climate change agreement.

Today, there are already solar energy tenders in Mexico and in India without subsidies, which have obtained prices of 3 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Panamanians pay from 16 to 18 cents per kilowatt. How long will it take for the political class to allow us to enjoy these benefits?

On January 1, the tunas complied with Parque Porras in Las Tablas. It was about 17 minutes of fireworks that announced the new year. In the morning, the beaches from El Uverito to Venado were very crowded, and while the families visited, the lights went off for hours.

Despite the hot sun and constant wind, small children and older adults had to change their celebrations. The food that was so carefully planned was spoiled by the lack of electricity.

Back in Panama, the elevator of the building in which I live was damaged on January 3 by an electrical "slump".

Those are the invisible costs, but very painful, of an inefficient management system and captured by vested interests, which are stealing everything and in any way, even the energy of the sun.