UNITED NATIONS LIMITED ECONOMIC ST/ECLA/CONF. ?/LA0& AND 12 July 1961 ©IGLISH SOCIAL COUNCIL ORIGINAL» SPANISH LATIN AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER SEMINAR Held under the joint auspices of the Econsmic Cojmiiasion for Latin America, the Bureau of Technical Assistance Operations and the Resources and Transport Economics Branch of the United Nations, with the collaboration of the Government of the United Mexican States Mexico City, 31 July to 12 August 1961 THE ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY IN LATIN AMERICA* PRESENT STATUS AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS * * 4 * Document submitted by the Economic Commission for Latin America, Energy and Water Resources Programme MOTE» This text is subject to technical and editorial revision» The statistical annex appears in the Spanish version ©sly. ST/ECI-A/CONF- 7/Ls 1» 01 Page i INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the status of electricity production and consumption in the Latin American countries during the past few years, including the characteristics of its develop- ! meit. Chapter I places Latin America's situation against the background of world power production, mainly with respect to electric power. In 1959 the average regional per capita production recorded at the power stations was 316 KWh, compared with the world average of 723 KKh® During the last ten years the figure for Latin America has increased at the annual cumulative rate of 6.4 per cent^ while the corresponding increase for world production was 8*1 per cent. The increase in the relative importance of electric power compared with ofchér forms of power is demonstrated by the fact that the region's share of world power consumption in 1937 was 15 per cent, in 1949 20 per cent, and at present is about 30 per cent. The chapter concludes by examining the factors that have led to this change® Chapter II supplements and brings up to date the information on the relation between electricity consumption and general economic development contained in Energy in Latin America (E/CN.12/384/Rev.l),^ again confirm- ing the close link between the two. However, it is explained that this interdependence does not Imply that a country*s level of income automati- cally determines its level of electricity cansuinption, which is influenced by such other factors as the structure of the production system, income distribution, climate, and so forth; special attention is drawn to the importance of the general process of innovation and technological progress in giving a dynamic character to the electrification process. Chapter III examines advances in total and per capita production of electricity during the last 20 years in Latin America, Of Latin America»s jf total production (62, 600 KWh in 1959), the average contribution of the public services was 79.5 per cent, the rest being made up by self-suppliers; 1/ United Nations Publication, Sales N%s 1956» IX,G» 2, /the share ST/ECLA/C0NF.7/L.1.01, PAGE IT the share of the former group has increased during the last two decades. The contribution of water power to total power generated is given by country; for Latin America as a whole, this share anounted to 53 per cent for the whole sector, whereas for the public utilities alone the share was 61 per cent, with a trend towards a further increase. The chapter continues with an evaluation of the amounts of fuel used in each country for the production of electricity, and reaches the conclusion that for the region as a whole over 17 per cent of the consumption of the commsrcial fuels specified is for this purpose, and that their imports weigh heavily on the balance of payments of some countries» The aost commonly used fuels are the petroleum derivatives; next comes coal, but at a much lower level. The chapter concludes with an examination of the features of the installations required for production. Chapter HT is devoted to a study of the development of installed capacity over the last two decades; in 1959 this amounted to 16 million kW for Latin America as a whole. The generating capacity of the public utilities,which represents about 76 per cent of this total, is about equally divided between thermal and hydroelectric plants. In 1959 about 70 per cent of the capacity tinder construction was of the hydroelectric type. Over the years a marked trend has developed in the region towards the construction of. plants with a higher potential and the use of units of higher capacity. The average figure for plant utilization in 1959 was 3#860 hours, but the figure for the public utility hydraulic plants was over 4,780 hours. Reserve capacity is usually inadequate, and except for a few systems the margin between installed potential and demand is dangerously narrow. The first part of chapter V establishes the relationship between production and consumption of electricity. An average of 17,4 per cent of the regional power generated corresponded to losses, unrecorded consumption and consumption at the plants themselves. At peak hours the situation is even worse, and it is estimated that the losses to the consumer may be over 20 per cent. The second part of the chapter examines for each country the consumption of the various sectors - industrial, domestic, commercial, public lighting, transport and other, grouping them according to the way /in which ST/ECLA/ CONF. 7/Lol. 01 Fage ill in which the power is used, that is, as a factor of production or consumer good, and establishing correlations with other economic factors, on the basis of this classification« Of the 40,900 million KWh of total net consumption by the public services in the region in 1959, 62 per cent represented urban non-indu3trial consumption, of which domestic consumption, the principal constituent, alone represented over 31 per cent. This level of domestic consumption constituted an average of about 150 kWh per urban inhabitant, and is twice as high as it was 10 years before8 Industrial and mining consumption in the region amounted to 27,500 million M*Jh, 56 per cent of which was provided by the public utilities and the remainder by self »supply« The annual growth rate of this consumption is increasing, but not as rapidly as that of the consumption of electricity as an end product. Consequently the proportion of total consumption represented by industrial and mining consumption dropped from 65 per cent in 1938 to 54,9 per cent in 1959« To supplement the economic analysis of electricity at the national and regional level, chapter VI examines the electricity system as the basic functional unit and gives an account of seme of the most representative systems in the region« The following main conclusions can be drawn from this chapter* (a) There is a wide variation in the consumption pattern of electricity from one country to another® (b) There is a strong trend towards the interconnexion of systems in some countries in order to make better use of equipment and to supplement various hydrologic systems, (c) In a number of countries there are systems operating on both 50 and 60 cycle3| this lade of uniformity in frequency constitutes a serious economic problem in the integration of networks, which should be dealt with immediately in order to minimize future ill-effects, (d) There is also a wide range of both high tension voltages and low utilization voltages; these should be standardized for obvious economic /reasons, namely, ST/ECLA/C0NF,7/L,1.01 Page iv reasons, namely, reduction of spare-part inventories and standardization of industrial production in the region« (e) In general the price of electricity has lagged far behind that of other prices, which has had a harmful effect on electrical development! in this field also there are certain discrepancies as between the various components of the energy sector» Data with respect to the position in I960 is fragmentazy for most Latin American countries and completely lacking for some. Hence, only a general, provisional appreciation can be given at this point. The increase in generating power in I960 as compared with the previous year appears not to have exceeded 7 per cent for the area as a whole. This figure is very much below the average for the period 1955/59 when the annual cumulative rate of increase was 10,1 per cent. It also differs substantially from the increase in gross product - 3,7 per cent in the year 1959/60 - and in industrial expansion, which amounted to over 10 per cent compared with the previous year. With the exception of Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the growth in electricity generation seems to have slowed down, and in some countries a drop in absolute terms was registered. This was the case, for instance, in Chile where the decline was attributable to the disastrous earthquake in May I960, which directly affected one-third of the population. Electricity production in Bolivia also declined, compared with the previous year. Installed capacity during I960 seems to have expanded by over & per cent in relation to the previous year, the main increases being registered in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru, The effects of this increase in generating power will be felt more strongly in 1961 as a number of important works were only completed towards the end of I960© /Table A st/SCLA/CONF e 7/L«1»01 Page v Table A LATIN AMERICA! ESTH1ATE CF iQLiCTRICIT? OPERATED BY PUBLIC UTILITIES - i960 Cvmuaas ftf m) Argentina 8 000 Brazil 21 000 Chile 2 3^0 Colombia 2 $00 Peru 1 150 Uruguay 1 250 Mexico 9 330 Rest of Latin Amerioa 18 000 Total 53 000 Table A shows the i960 figures for olectricity generation and capaoity - In detail fer those countries where they are based on fairly accurate data and as a «hole foy the rest of L&tia Aaeriea® In the sao» year self-8up p ly may have amounted to about 12*$ to 13.5 million kWh, so that the total figure for electri- city generation «as certainly In the vicinity of 66 thousand million.