Guatemala: El Canadá Hydroelectric Project

The El Canadá Hydroelectric Project consisted of a 48.11 MW peaking run-of-river hydroelectric plant located on the Samalá River on the west coast of Guatemala, near the town of Santa María de Jesus. The western Guatemala region has 350 MW of demand and 31 MW of installed capacity. The project started commercial operation per the Wholesale Market Norms on November 2003. Since its commissioning, it has been producing an average of 194.7 GWh/year of electricity, which is sold to Guatemala’s largest commercial distributor, COMEGSA, under a 10-year power purchase agreement. The project has contributed to the sustainable development of Guatemala in various ways – it increased the supply of power to the local grid, improving stability and helping reduce losses in the distribution system, and it reduced greenhouse gas emissions as well as emissions of local pollutants from power generation by using a cleaner energy source. It is one of the first renewable energy projects to be developed after the approval of Guatemala’s new General Electricity Law and its development has provided important knowledge and experience for other project developers that are striving to participate in the competitive national and regional market. The project has also conserved subsurface water, it has re-forested parts of the land where it was constructed, and it has been making annual payments to improve the conditions of the local communities. Finally, it has created 250 jobs, injecting at least US$ 30 million into the Guatemalan economy over the course of the construction period.