The Government of Venezuela signed this Monday a memorandum of understanding on electricity with representatives of the American company General Electric (GE) Vernova and the state National Electric Corporation (Corpoelec).
In a broadcast on the state channel Venezuelan Television (VTV), Roger Martella, corporate director of GE Vernova, said that the company’s mission is to allow electricity to reach everyone.
“We want to move quickly, for the system to work as best as possible in a few months and I think we can do it together. We already have an agreement on the technical aspects and how we can move forward quickly. In the next 12 months and more we are going to strengthen the SEN (National Electric System),” Martella anticipated, according to the simultaneous translation.
The memorandum was signed at the Miraflores Palace, headquarters of the Executive in Caracas, where the president in charge of Venezuela attended, Delcy Rodriguez; the country’s Minister of Electric Energy, Rolando Alcalá; the United States charge d’affaires in Venezuela, John Barrett, as well as the executive director of GE Vernova’s energy segment, Eric Gray, according to VTV.
Rodríguez hopes that in the short term the memorandum “will become the contract to begin these works that will make it possible to recover, in the first 24 months, 1,000 megawatts and in total, in the four years, more than 5,000 megawatts.”
He noted that the recovery of the electrical system will be “for the well-being of the entire country” and “also to facilitate the conditions of international investments that are coming to Venezuela.”
“I know that we are also signing and moving forward in generation to Venezuelan oil (PDVSA), sustaining oil production in our country,” said the president in charge, without giving more details on the matter.
Likewise, he said that GE management carried out a “very precise and very thorough survey” on the electrical system for six weeks, both in water and thermal generation.
The memorandum “is also a historic step for Venezuela” and the “recovery of a service as essential to the life of a country” as electricity, stated the Chavista leader.
Rodríguez thanked the United States chargé d’affaires for “all the impetus he has given” to make “these jobs possible.”
For his part, Alcalá stated that personnel from Corpoelec and the Ministry of Energy They have visited, for more than a month, thermoelectric and hydroelectric generation plants and substations in order to “work together with technology companies” to develop the infrastructure and its rehabilitation.
Venezuela has been suffering from failures in the electricity supply for years, especially in regions far from Caracas, of which the chavismo has blamed foreign sanctions, mainly American ones, while the opposition and experts assure that it is the result of corruption and lack of maintenance, among other factors.
Rodríguez, who seeks to recover the sector with private and foreign investment, reported on Saturday of a “historic agreement” with IMPSA to complete the Tocoma hydroelectric plant, in the state Bolivar (southeast, border with Brazil).
