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Energy Minister Eduardo Oviedo says the state power utility needs at least $6 billion in coming years to improve service quality and cut losses, and he expects Congress to pass enabling reforms when lawmakers return.

Congress is set to debate a reform that would open ENEE's transmission network—the last segment still under state control—to private investment, as the Asfura government seeks to restructure the loss-making utility.

Edgar Aguilar of the Association for a More Just Society (ASJ) says proposed reforms to rescue the state power company ENEE lack fundamental components, while the ASJ has separately presented its own proposals to restructure ENEE's debt and reduce its financial burden.

Congress and the state power company agreed Thursday to resolve chronic blackouts and transmission failures in Choluteca and Valle departments within 15 days, with over 30 crews working on distribution and transmission substations to implement technical fixes.

Local authorities and small and medium-sized businesses in western Honduras called for approval of electricity-sector reforms, saying constant blackouts cause up to 100 million lempiras (about $4 million) in monthly losses.

The Tegucigalpa Chamber of Commerce called for structural reforms to Honduras's electricity system, saying chronic outages and service failures at the state utility ENEE are harming businesses and threatening the country's competitiveness.

Salomón Ordóñez, the former head of state utility ENEE, says Honduras faces losing competitiveness in Central America unless it tackles two decades of governance failures in its electricity system, citing Guatemala and El Salvador's successful power-sector overhauls.

The Inter-American Development Bank said it supports Honduras's energy reforms, which aim to fix structural problems in the electrical system and ensure long-term sustainability, and pledged to help with implementation.

The Latin American Development Bank (CAF) endorsed Honduras's proposed electricity-sector reform, saying it would modernize the energy system, attract foreign investment, and improve service quality while offering support for implementation.

The government is pursuing an electrical-system reform that would restructure the national utility company (ENEE) into separate generation, transmission, and distribution units to reduce annual losses exceeding 16 billion lempiras and free resources for health, education, and infrastructure.