Introduction

ENEE - EMPRESA NACIONAL DE ENERGIA ELECTRICA

I am an American living in Honduras. Our family runs a home for abused children and my computer work provides most of the funding for the home. Unfortunately, computers and Internet signals require electricity and Honduras has one of the worst, if not the worst, power companies in the hemisphere. I'm sure Africa has some rivals, but our area of Honduras suffers outages about 12 hours weekly. Yesterday we had an eleven hour outage in most of Siguatepeque. You can expect a 24 hour plus outage on occasion. Today our neighborhood went out two hours ago and is still out. Because I make my living on a computer, I am forced to drive through awful roads into town where the power isn't out as often, and some businesses are kept alive by generator.

So why all the outages? I've read that it has something to do with a trade imbalance and Honduras must import all of its petroleum products. Generators run on fuel, so to keep trade balanced, we have to cut off the generators on a regular basis. That's the rumor anyway.

On the flip side, if you look at the CIA World fact book on Honduras, you will see that Honduras produces 30% more electricity than it consumes, mainly with hydroelectric dams. It leaves one to wonder why all the outages?! Then again, corruption is the leader of this country, so who knows where the power goes.

Another rumor is that large companies pay bribes to have reduced electric bills. The price of a kilowatt hour in Honduras is about $0.20, compared to the USA where it is about 30-40% less. Keep in mind that the electricity here is produced by dams, many of which were constructed with funding from foreigners. At the moment a large one is being constructed with funds from China. So one wonders, if there are few expenses in producing electricity in Honduras, where does all the money go? Same case goes for roads. Why are they so horrible given that vehicle registrations are about 200% higher here than in the USA, and gas taxes are 300% higher?

Of course, a lot of businesses suffer and cut production because they don't have power, thus contributing to the trade imbalance, but on the supply side.

Aside from venting, I am hoping to get a running tab of outages across Honduras. If you are reading this and experience electrical outages in Honduras, please post your area, the date and duration of electrical outage as they occur.

A good friend is fond of saying "Third world countries are uniquely designed to stay third world countries." This is one such example.