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Paraguay's renewable energy law criticized as a 'fallacy' that won't end state utility's monopoly
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Energy & Infrastructure

Paraguay's renewable energy law criticized as a 'fallacy' that won't end state utility's monopoly

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Paraguay's renewable energy law, promoted as ending the state utility's monopoly, is unlikely to achieve this goal, according to a former official.
  • The law maintains the state-owned ANDE as both regulator and competitor, hindering private investment and effectively allowing the utility to benefit from private sector infrastructure.
  • Critics argue the law's limitations, such as the high threshold for

A new law in Paraguay, intended to open the electricity market to private investment in renewable energy, is being criticized as a "fallacy" that will not end the state utility's monopoly. The law, enacted under President Santiago Peña, promises to allow private agents into the market, but a technical analysis by former ANDE head Luis Villordo argues it falls short.

The advertised end of ANDE's monopoly through Law 7599/2025 is a 'fallacy' and will be nothing more than an expression of wishes.

— Luis VillordoCommenting on the effectiveness of Paraguay's new renewable energy law.

Villordo points out that legal provisions to end the monopoly have existed since 2006 without success. He contends that the new legislation, Law 7599/2025, replicates past failures by keeping the state-owned National Electricity Administration (ANDE) in a position of power as both regulator and a direct competitor. This structure, he argues, discourages independent private investment.

The analysis highlights that the law requires private investors to cede their grid reinforcement works to ANDE for free, a move Villordo calls a "legal appropriation" that constitutes institutionalized unfair competition. Furthermore, ANDE will continue to set the annual reference tariff, solidifying its role as "judge and interested party" in the energy market.

This imposition constitutes a 'legal appropriation' and a situation of unfair competition institutionalized by the law itself.

— Luis VillordoDescribing the requirement for private investors to cede grid reinforcement works to ANDE.

Another significant criticism targets the creation of a "Large Consumer of ERNC" category, limited to users with demand of 30 MW or more. Villordo deems this threshold excessively high, severely restricting the number of eligible industries and questioning the category's logical existence. He believes these provisions will prevent the true development of the independent private sector in renewable energy.

The category of Large Consumer of ERNC is a category that makes no logical sense of existence.

— Luis VillordoCriticizing the high threshold set for large renewable energy consumers.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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