In a meeting with his US counterpart, Joe Biden, the Colombian president shared how useful a single interconnection system would be in the Americas.
In order for America to have a single electric transmission system, Colombian President Gustavo Petro explained the need for an electric transmission line between Panama and Colombia.
Petro referred to this issue after his meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 20, with his US counterpart, Joe Biden.
Upon leaving the White House, the Colombian president commented to the media on various issues and explained the need to create an electric transportation system connecting North, Central and South America to decarbonize the northern nation.
“The transmission networks of Canada, the United States and Mexico are relatively integrated into Central America, but between Panama and Colombia there is no electrical connection. Colombia is already interconnected to the south.”
“So, being able to electrically connect Colombia and Venezuela is key to creating a single American electric transportation system, which, if filled with clean energy, will be one of the most beneficial factors in decarbonizing the United States economy,” he said. .
And Biden supports the proposal to move Petro’s decarbonisation. A press release from the Colombian presidency noted that the US president said: “I am convinced that we are indeed close to a carbon-neutral economy.”
He added, “Both countries are making efforts to deal with climate change and we also announced” that we have a $500 million fund to deal with protecting the Amazon.
Although La Estrella de Panamá sent Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica, SA (Etesa) a questionnaire on the progress of the project, which has been delayed for more than 15 years, the public entity has not commented.
The Panama-Colombia electrical interconnection project represents an investment of approximately $500 million, with an extension of 500 km (between Panama and Central America), for the current high-voltage line with a capacity of 400 megawatts. In Panama, the responsible entity is Etesa and the Colombian counterpart Interconexión Eléctrica, SAESP (ISA).
The project has been paralyzed since 2012, and it has a road divided into three sections. land with a distance of 220 km in Panama; Undersea cable with a length of 130 km, and a terrestrial cable in Colombia with a length of 150 km.
