Chávez: Power investments to reach US$2.5bn in 2009

Venezuela will invest US$2.5bn in 2009 to add 1.1GW of new capacity, President Hugo Chávez said during a weekend version of his Aló Presidente talk show. Corpoelec, the county's state power holding company, invested US$2.6bn in 2008 to add 1.38GW of new capacity, state power company Cadafe said in a statement. "We've added 700km of new high-voltage transmission lines and will add another 1,500km this year," Corpoelec president Hipólito Izquierdo said in the statement. "Total power investments from 2008 to 2014 will reach US$22bn," he added. "We'll add another 10GW of capacity during that period." Installed capacity on Venezuela's national SEN grid was flat in April at 23.3GW, according to grid operator Opsis. Grid capacity has expanded by 188MW, or 0.81%, since the beginning of 2009.