The former director of the Entidad Binacional Yacyretá (EBY), Nicanor Duarte Frutos, warned that Paraguay could consume all of its available energy within roughly a decade and argued that the country must continue investing in new energy projects to secure its future supply.
In statements to 1020 AM radio, Duarte Frutos said that rising domestic consumption demands strategic planning. "We need to keep investing in energy projects. In 10 years we could be consuming all of our energy. We have to think about other projects," he said.
The former director also criticized the policy of supplying energy to large foreign companies and called on Paraguay to prioritize strengthening its own national industry. According to him, the country runs the risk of seeing its energy resources exploited by sectors that do not generate proportional benefits for the Paraguayan population.
"We have to think about the future. They offer our energy to big companies, but Paraguay is about to consume everything, and in some cases very high electricity rates are being paid. We have to strengthen our industry and not let the large-scale exploiters come and use all our energy without paying us," Duarte Frutos declared.