Paraguay's National Electricity Administration (ANDE) has kept two strategic projects stalled for years: the sale of energy from the Acaray Hydroelectric Plant to Brazil and the issuance of its own bonds in the capital markets, both without an official completion schedule.
The initiative to commercialize energy in Brazil's free market was launched in May 2024, during the tenure of then ANDE president engineer Félix Sosa. The initial auction planned to sell 100 MW of power from the Acaray plant, with contracts lasting from one to six years, without requiring additional investment from the Paraguayan side.
However, more than two years later, the process still awaits final signature from Paraguay's Executive Branch. In November 2024, Brazil published an ordinance that increased the authorized volume to 120 MW and made the energy source more flexible, allowing it to come from any Paraguayan source other than Itaipu. The final definition of the operation became dependent on the National Economic Team (EEN).
Until January 2026, the company Infinity Comercializadora de Energía Ltda. maintained the best economic offer at US$21.03 per MWh, a value that needed to be renewed every three months due to the lack of an official resolution. Silence on the matter persisted throughout 2025, raising questions about the commercial viability or political will behind the agreement.
Simultaneously, ANDE's issuance of its own bonds – without sovereign state guarantee – is a promise that has been dragging on since March 2022. The idea was for the state-owned company to finance itself in capital markets to fund its Master Plan. By late 2024, ANDE was already structuring a bond issuance in guaraní, having contracted the risk rating agency Solventa and projected completion for the first quarter of 2025.
The Budget Law formally authorized the operation for 2025, but it did not materialize. The 2026 budget proposal again authorized the same amount, expressly acknowledging that the issuance planned for the previous fiscal year had not been carried out. In January 2026, ANDE reported that auditor Ernst & Young had completed the review of financial statements, a step considered crucial to obtain the necessary risk rating. In May of the same year, then Director of Planning and Studies engineer Francisco Escudero confirmed that management was still ongoing, without a set date.
While awaiting the realization of these projects, ANDE continues to resort to alternative mechanisms, such as operating leases, to maintain its investments in transmission and distribution.
To date, neither project has an official completion schedule. Both remain under review, respectively by the National Economic Team and ANDE itself, with no public deadlines indicating when they will be implemented.