The Role of the State in Large-Scale Hydropower Development
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Setting the Stage for Megaproject Development CONELEC’s 2007-2016 Plan marks a significant shift in energy planning. It comes hand in hand with a major regulatory and legislative overhaul, part of Correa’s political platform. Below is a brief overview of how his administration successfully re-centralized energy planning (as well as other “strategic” sectors, such as oil, mining, water governance, and telecommunications), while enacting notably progressive environmental and social laws. The contradictions between these legislative efforts are testament to the unavoidable trade-off between development objectives and social and environmental protection. In the case of Ecuador, matters of “national security” and “sovereignty” often trump other considerations, as will be shown in the following pages. The preface to the 2007-2016 Master Plan condemns the experiences from the previous decade—the so-called ‘indicative planning,’ through which entities like CONELEC utilize electricity master plans to highlight growing energy needs and suggest potential generation projects to private actors. The 2007-2016 Plan speaks of a “new development paradigm that allows the State to take the initiative in the planning and execution of great infrastructure projects (…) Emblematic actions of this new and revolutionary political approach include the commitment of funds for the development of key hydropower projects: Mazar (160MW), Sopladora (487MW), Toachi Pilatón (253MW), Ocaña (26MW), as well as Coca Codo Sinclair.” (CONELEC, 2007) The document conspicuously refers to two potential scenarios for CCS: the 1992, two-phased development, and a new design option for a single project with 1,500MW. Chapter 6 focuses on generation options for the country, from renewable sources like geothermal, solar, and wind energy, to hydropower and thermal projects. This section devotes one page to CocaCodo-Sinclair; it mentions the 1992 studies and the original 432-427MW, two-phased proposal and then briefly lists three factors to justify the increase to 1,500MW: “favorable hydraulic conditions on the Coca river, rising electricity demand, and the high costs of other supply sources.” (CONELEC, 2007, p. 150) It acknowledges the need for an updated set of !
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