ANDE, Paraguay’s state electricity utility, has halted negotiations under the current terms with British company ATOME Energy PLC to supply electricity to a green hydrogen and fertilizer plant planned for Villeta. The utility’s president, Miguel Báez Reyes, said it was not sustainable to maintain for 15 years a fixed tariff that he already considers low.
The project called for demand of up to 145 megawatts. The company planned to cover about one-third of its consumption with solar power and obtain the rest from ANDE, from hydropower, under a frozen promotional tariff. “The numbers do not add up. We cannot maintain a tariff for 15 years, a tariff that is already very cheap today,” Báez Reyes said.
The decision comes as the utility projects that Paraguayan consumption will absorb all the energy available from Itaipú and Yacyretá between 2030 and 2031. As the hydropower surplus declines, new projects could depend on higher-cost sources such as gas, solar power, biomass and thermal generation.
The failed tariff agreement links near-term industrial investment to Paraguay’s expected decline in surplus hydropower and the disputed institutional reforms. ANDE presents new rules and generation sources as a way to support growing demand, while Sitrande disputes the effects of those changes and their possible consequences for the utility.
Báez Reyes supports creating a Ministry of Energy, Mines and Hydrocarbons to coordinate sector policy, along with an independent regulator that would act as an arbitrator between consumers and investors. The Executive is still assessing the proposal, which is also presented as a tool to attract gas pipelines, gas-fired plants, solar parks, distributed generation, artificial-intelligence data centers and other high-consumption industries.
The ANDE president argues that the state lacks the resources to finance the necessary infrastructure on its own. Long-term alternatives mentioned include the binational Corpus Christi dam, which could add about 4,000 megawatts of installed capacity—2,000 corresponding to Paraguay—if environmental restrictions in Misiones, Argentina, are overcome. The estimated timeline would be seven to eight years after construction begins. The use of small modular reactors with unenriched uranium from Caazapá was also mentioned for a 15-year horizon.
The ANDE Workers’ Union (Sitrande) rejects the proposed reorganization and remains on permanent alert and continues to mobilize. Secretary-General Adolfo Villalba accused the Executive of financially weakening the utility to pave the way for privatization. The allegation has not been confirmed and, according to Villalba, a potential sale could triple tariffs.
The union also questions the allocation of 1,400 megawatts to cryptocurrency mining, a volume compared with the consumption of two Itaipú turbines. According to specialists cited by Sitrande, ANDE faces an annual deficit of US$600 million for its projects. Villalba said that an Itaipú tariff adjusted to the real cost of US$10 per megawatt-hour would have allowed savings of more than US$200 million in the first half of the year, against an investment plan estimated at US$400 million annually. These figures and allegations were presented by the union and have not been independently verified.
After meeting with Chamber of Deputies President Raúl Latorre, Vice President Hugo Meza and the bill’s sponsors, Sitrande called off a mobilization planned for August 26. The lawmakers indicated their intention to postpone consideration of the bill, but the union said it would continue monitoring the debate.