Roundup: Biomass bill, Itaipú-Villa Hayes, hydro amendment

Bolivian lower house legislator for Pando department, Galo Bonifaz from the ruling MAS party, announced a bill drafted with the Cobija free trade zone to allow the installation of a biomass power plant. The project would reduce government subsidies for current power supply in the area by at least half, according to a house release, which added the plant would cost US$3mn and take a year to build. *** Itaipú Binacional reported completion of the first transformer bank for the Villa Hayes substation as part of the Itaipú-Villa Hayes transmission project in Paraguay with installation of the fourth transformer which will act as a reserve unit. *** And Guyana's Prime Minister Samuel Hinds tabled an amendment to the Hydro-Electric Power Act in the national assembly to create hydropower offset reserve areas and increase the penalty for the breach of regulations made under the act.