LatinNews Daily - 3 March 2025

*Honduras’ state electricity company Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (ENEE) has announced that 100% of electricity has been restored after Honduras was hit by a national blackout on 1 March. In a statement ENEE said this was caused by “a transitory and atypical failure in the connection between Honduras and Nicaragua” and, specifically, a 98km transmission line connecting a substation in Honduras’ Choluteca department with one in the Nicaraguan department of León. According to ENEE, which notes 23km of the transmission line is in Honduras with the rest in Nicaragua, equipment is being inspected to determine where exactly the error occurred. It went on to highlight that the national grid (SIN) has faced a “structural problem due to a lack of investment in transmission over the last 15 years”, claiming that, over this period, and as a result of “public-private corruption”, solar generation was concentrated in the south of the country without the necessary infrastructure having been developed to transport energy efficiently on a national level. It said that to address this, since 2022, ENEE had implemented a L21bn (USR$821m) investment plan, aimed at strengthening transmission infrastructure and improving the stability of the country’s electricity system. It revealed plans to install a “pioneering” energy storage system this year, noting that a few months ago it had launched a bidding process for the contract to install this which is due to be awarded imminently.