Energia Electrica

A Libre congressman said the opposition party supports modernizing Honduras's state power company ENEE but rejects its division into separate corporations, signaling a key policy divide between parties over the utility's future structure.

ENEE manager Guillermo Peña Panting disclosed that the state electric utility's largest debtor is the government and its institutions, which owe approximately L14 billion of the utility's L18 billion in total accounts receivable.

With ENEE facing a daily loss exceeding L50 million (about $2 million) and an accumulated deficit of L120 billion, civil-society groups and small-business leaders are urging lawmakers to approve energy reforms that would restructure the state utility into separate generation, transmission, and distribution units.

Lawmakers will hold special sessions on June 30 and July 1 to debate and vote on government-backed reforms to restructure state utility ENEE, with Congress president Tomás Zambrano stressing that privatization is off the table.

Leonardo Deras, a commissioner at electricity regulator CREE, warned that state utility ENEE is losing 1.3 billion lempiras (about $52 million) a month and that, without action, losses could reach 150,000 million lempiras (about $6 billion) in coming years.

Congress began first-round debate on a 18-article bill to reorganize and strengthen Honduras's power system, which still requires two more votes before final passage.

A coalition of Honduran civic leaders has presented Congress with 12 preliminary conditions for the electric-sector reform, including legal protections against privatization of the state-owned energy company ENEE and stronger public oversight of its strategic assets.

The state utility's financial manager said ENEE has a strategy to meet near-term obligations and restructure its debt, and that pending energy reforms will boost confidence among lenders and potential investors.

The Libre party's congressional bloc has proposed a popular consultation to let Hondurans decide the future direction of ENEE, the state electrical utility.

The union representing ENEE employees opposes splitting the state utility into three private companies and proposes instead an internal reorganization by distribution, operation, transmission, and generation aimed at reducing losses while keeping the utility public.

Milton Puerto, president of Congress's Energy Commission, says private companies will be barred from using assets of the state electricity utility ENEE as collateral when seeking investment loans.

A draft law sent to Congress would restructure Honduras's electric system by splitting state utility ENEE into a holding company, creating an independent system operator, and opening the market to new generators and retailers, with experts projecting potential savings of $3.6 billion.