President Laurentino Cortizo presented the ‘Strategy for the comprehensive development of the electricity sector’ during a visit he made to an electrical substation in the northern Panamanian province of Colon. The strategy aims to promote power generation using renewable energy, La Estrella de Panama newspaper reported.

The Government seeks to attract investment to create jobs and through an efficient low-cost generation, thus reducing electricity tariffs, of which end users assume 62 percent, and the rest is subsidized by the State, the president said.

Cortizo explained that the strategy consists of 76 projects that will achieve the electrical interconnection of 3,500 homes and more than 18,000 residents in rural areas, most of which do not have electricity at present.

Panama has one of the highest electricity tariffs in the continent with an average of 0.161 dollars per kilowatt-hour for the residential area and 0.18 dollars per kilowatt-hour in the commercial area, both above the global market average.

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