On April 28, 2025, fifty million people in Spain and Portugal lost electricity. A failure at a solar plant, within a system lacking sufficient technical backup, caused a total collapse that paralyzed the Iberian Peninsula. Eight people died. Hundreds were trapped in elevators. High-speed trains stopped in rural areas, and hospitals resorted to improvised emergency systems. The economic damage exceeded one billion euros. Just weeks earlier, the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez had announced the closure of all nuclear plants between 2027 and 2035, assuring citizens there would be no blackouts. Today, 83% of Spaniards believe these outages will happen again, and nearly 60% believe the government informed the public adequately during the crisis. Ideology must not replace engineering.
In Guatemala, we know what it means to live in darkness. On January 19, 1982, in the middle of the armed conflict, a bomb destroyed the INDE plant in Santa Cruz del Quiché. Twenty-one of the country’s twenty-two departments were left without electricity. Sabotage intensified during that year: power lines were cut, poles were brought down, and plants were attacked. Guerrilla groups justified these attacks as a way to weaken the Army, but the result was devastating: millions were left without basic services. Constant blackouts and lack of investment marked the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1991, when the Chixoy reservoir failed to reach capacity, the country came to a halt. The collapse became so severe that floating power barges were installed in Puerto Quetzal to increase energy supply. Maquiladoras turned to diesel generators, and hospitals operated in the shadows. I remember candles at hand just to have dinner or do homework. Modernity hung by a thread.
The transformation began in 1996 during the government of Álvaro Arzú, with the signing of the peace accords and the approval of the General Electricity Law. This reform transformed the model: generation and distribution were privatized, the Wholesale Electricity Market was created, and the National Electric Energy Commission (CNEE) was established as an independent regulator. The CNEE, composed of one delegate from the Executive branch, one from academia, and one from business associations, has been key in guaranteeing clear rules, competitive rates, and technical stability. It is, in fact, an example of how, under transparent legislation, coordination between the public, academic, and private sectors can efficiently govern a strategic system based on technical and economic criteria.
Since then, more than 10 billion dollars have been invested by the private sector, diversifying the energy matrix: 48.1% hydroelectric, 27.7% biomass, 3.5% wind, 2.2% geothermal, 1.3% solar, and only 0.7% natural gas. More than 83% of our energy comes from renewable sources. But despite that renewable character, we have a technically solid and stable system, with enough firm energy to ensure continuity of supply.
How did Guatemala go from blackouts to regional leadership? Today, we are the largest net exporter in the Regional Electricity Market. Between January 2022 and March 2025, we exported 37.43% of all electricity sold in Central America, mainly to El Salvador and Honduras. In 2019, we exported 2.19 billion kWh, equivalent to 16% of our production. In 2024, we generated 13,117 GWh and auctioned an additional 399 MW in PEG-4-2022.
Guatemala has a competitive, open, and solid electrical system, but it is not invulnerable. One bad decision, one politically motivated reform, one concession to populism, is enough to bring us back to blackouts, rationing, and isolation.
And the most innovative part: today, any citizen or small business can connect to the grid. From household solar panels taking advantage of irradiation levels of 5.3 kWh/m²/day, to plants generating electricity from landfill methane. Projects such as Carbon Trade, which supplies 600 households with biogas, demonstrate how openness strengthened the electrical system.
All of this can change if we make the same mistake as Spain: ideologizing energy. Spain decided to close its nuclear plants not for technical reasons, but symbolic ones, associating them with Francoism. Today it is suffering the consequences.
The energy trilemma — guaranteeing supply, reducing emissions, and maintaining affordable prices — cannot be solved with speeches. It requires technical expertise, private investment, and common sense. We already learned that lesson, but warning signs remain. Our own state infrastructure system is on the verge of collapse. In his column “Instructions Not to Cry in Winter,” Dr. Lisardo Bolaños warns that, due to the inaction of CONRED and the Ministry of Finance, no preventive road maintenance contracts have been signed since January 2025. With the arrival of the rainy season, we could become isolated from Central America, as already happened at kilometer 44 of the Palín–Escuintla highway. The lack of public foresight threatens our connectivity and, therefore, our economic and social security.
Faced with this reality, it is worth observing cases such as VAS, the Southern Alternative Route: a network of urban highways developed entirely by the private sector. It connects strategic points such as Zone 12, Villa Nueva, San Miguel Petapa, and the highway to El Salvador, reduces travel times by 30%, operates with electronic tolls, and maintains modern, safe, and efficient infrastructure. What would happen if the national transportation system were managed by the private sector, ensuring free roads for the majority while also offering a premium paid network for those who prefer it? For those wondering, this does not mean privatizing all access: it means users choose whether they want speed and modernity in exchange for a voluntary payment. The example of the private contract with Marnos — replaced by the State on the Palín–Escuintla highway — shows how we can shoot ourselves in the foot because of ideological prejudice. Do we want efficiency and good service that improve our quality of life, or do we want bureaucracy known for its incapacity and inefficiency?
Guatemala has a competitive, open, and solid electrical system, but it is not invulnerable. One bad decision, one politically motivated reform, one concession to populism, is enough to bring us back to blackouts, rationing, and isolation. History has taught us this harshly. The Spanish blackout is not an anecdote: it is a warning. Let us not allow the ideological bill to extinguish the progress that cost us so much to build. Let them not send us back to candlelight.
