The largely government owned electricity sector in Haiti, referred to as Électricité d'Haïti (ED'H for "Haiti Electric Utility", faced a deep crisis characterized by dramatic shortages and the lowest coverage of electricity in the Western Hemisphere in 2006.[2][3] with only about Contact online >>
The largely government owned electricity sector in Haiti, referred to as Électricité d''Haïti (ED''H for "Haiti Electric Utility", faced a deep crisis characterized by dramatic shortages and the lowest coverage of electricity in the Western Hemisphere in 2006.[2][3] with only about 38.5%[1] of the population having regular access to electricity.[4] In addition, Haiti''s large share of thermal generation (70%) makes the country especially vulnerable to rising and unstable oil prices.
Haiti has the smallest public sector in the LAC region,[5] which in this case is reflected by a weak institutional capacity within the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications (MTPTC). Since the MTPTC is the main government body in charge of the electricity sector, this lack of capacity affects directly the performance of the sector.
In 2017, the World Bank invested a total of $35 million to Haiti in order to improve access and expansion of renewable energy. The two projects are "Renewable Energy for All" and "Haiti Modern Energy Services for All". The money for the "Renewable Energy for All" is being split between three different sectors including: Public Administration - Energy and Extractives, Energy Transmission and Distribution, and Solar Energy. The project will be completed at the end of 2024.[6] The World Bank''s Country Director for Haiti, Anabela Abreau, has noted that "Haiti has significant untapped sources for renewable energy".[7]
With the use of agriculture and forestry waste, it can be turned into energy and can be turned into something similar to natural gas. Haiti has much agricultural waste that can be used for biomass energy. However, it has setbacks such as finding a way to economically collect the waste and also the effects of taking away these materials from their natural ecosystems. Currently, Haiti produces about 1 MW of electricity from bagasse.[9]
In 2018, USAID Local Enterprise and Value Chain Enhancement (LEVE) project gave grants to local vocational schools to help develop solar energy training courses. Due to the projected growth of the solar power energy industry in Haiti, USAID LEVE is helping improve these schools'' relationships with the private solar energy sector.[18]
Electricity in Haiti is 110 volts, alternating at 60 cycles per second.[19]
Most of the generation infrastructure in Haiti is very old and costly to maintain and operate.[20] In 2006, total installed capacity was only 270 MW, of which about 70% was thermal and 30% hydroelectric.[4] There are currently three large thermal plants and one hydroelectric plant serving the metropolitan area and some smaller thermal and hydroelectric plants in the provinces. The most important plants are:[4]
The large difference between installed and available capacity stems from serious maintenance deficiencies which have led, for example, to just one quarter of hydroelectric capacity to be available. The repairs carried out in Varreux and Carrefour should allow for 15 MW of additional capacity.[4]
Generation in 2003 was 550 GWh, with 54% coming from thermal sources and the remaining from hydroelectric ones.[21]
In 2003, total electricity consumption in Haiti was 510 GWh,[21] Average per capita consumption in 2004 was 75 kWh, the lowest in the LAC region. The share for each sector is as follows:[4]
The Haitian electricity sector has a national installed capacity that is largely insufficient to meet a demand of 157 MW in Port-au-Prince and of 550 MW at the national level. This electricity shortage has created a situation in which tens of thousands of households and institutions (e.g. hospitals, schools) have to rely on their own diesel generators and as a result spend large portions of their income on fuel to run those generators. In order to partially address this deficit, the government has signed contracts with Sogener, Haytrac and Epower which are private power suppliers, for a total of about 135 MW.[4][20][22]
For the medium and long term, according to recent estimates, Haiti needs about 200 MW of new generation capacity by the year 2010 and up to 750 MW by 2020.[4]
In Haiti, only 38.5%[1] of the population have access to electricity "officially",[4] although the Ministry of Public Works estimate that the coverage could be higher when irregular connections are considered.[20] In the Urban areas the total electrification rate is 60% (2019 est.)[1] but only 12% in rural areas.[1]
Some towns in Haiti, such as Fort-Liberté, the capital of Nord-Est, have an electricity distribution network, but have been effectively abandoned by the national utility EdH for about a decade. Users thus have to rely entirely on small, privately owned generators to meet their electricity demand.
Those who have access to electricity received on average 10 hours of electricity a day, with disparities among the areas covered.[23] People have freezers and refrigerators to cool food, not to preserve it. These coolers consume too much electricity to run off batteries, for those who can afford them. Therefore, they are disconnected when the power is off.[24]
EDH''s financial situation is precarious. Utility bills cover less than 50% of electricity generated. In some cases, third parties install transformers to steal electricity from EDH high voltage lines and charge consumers for the stolen electricity.[23] The combined losses require an annual subsidy from the Government of Haiti of $120 million to maintain operations.
The institutional framework of the electricity sector in Haiti is weak. The entity in charge of the energy sector is the Ministry of Public Works, Transports and Communications (MTPTC). The minister is also the president of the executive board of the state-owned power company, EdH (Haiti Electricity Company). The board of directors of EdH, which had not met for many years, began to meet again beginning in September 2005 (although recent meetings have not happened), aiming at better transparency for the management of the public utility.[23]
However, the elimination of the secretary for energy, mines and telecommunications (SEEMT) in 2005 deprived the government of the technical capacity required to address the crisis in the electricity sector.[23]
The Council of Modernization of Public Enterprises (CMEP), which was created as a technical entity to oversee the reform process of public enterprises, is officially in charge of following up on the medium term program to rehabilitate EDH.
Electricité d''Haïti (EdH) holds the monopoly for electricity generation, transmission and distribution in the country.[23] However, as a result of the inability of EdH to meet the electricity demand, the private sector has been present for ten years in the generation subsector through private power suppliers who sell their electricity to EdH at an agreed price. After the expiration of the existing contract with Alstom, Sogener is currently the only IPP that generates and sells electricity to EdH.[4]
Besides hydroelectric generation, which accounts for about 26% of total installed capacity, no other renewable sources are being exploited for electricity generation in Haiti.
A project for a new 32 MW hydroelectric plan (Artibonite 4C) is on implementation phase.[28][29] This new plant would have 10 MW of guaranteed capacity and would cost about US$120 million. The Brazilian Army made the base project and it was already donated to the Haitian Government.[4][30]
Haiti presents an interesting wind potential. Haiti''s Wind Potential Atlas has revealed a potential capacity of 50 MW in the area of Lake Azueï (close to Port-au-Prince) alone.[4]
In Haiti, the concept of Solar electricity was embraced by Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais, featuring 1,800 solar panels.[31] Rural electrification projects could apply off-grid solar technology. Since only about 13% of the people even have grid access, distributed solar pv is the only energy source that can supply all the people electricity for now.
Haiti has limited energy resources: no petroleum or gas resources, small hydroelectricity potential and rapidly declining supplies of wood fuels. With very limited access to electricity, most of the population in Haiti depends on charcoal as a source of energy.
The National Electricity Company (Electricité d''Haïti – EDH) was created in 1971 to operate the newly built Péligre hydroelectric plant and the nation''s power system. Electricity consumption increased sixfold between 1970 and 1987, but just 10% of the population had access to electricity by 1986, a number that, if not accounting for illegal connections, has not varied much in the last 20 years.[32] In the late 1980s, installed capacity was estimated at 147 MW (compared with 240 MW in 2003).
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