Editing Economy of Guatemala (section)

=== Electrical infrastructure in rural Guatemala ===
[[File:Guatemala electricity production.svg|thumb|Guatemala electricity production by year|400px]]
In Guatemala lack of access to electricity is concentrated in rural areas, although informal settlements around urban peripheries also tend to lack metered service.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Jimenez|first=Raul|date=2017|title=Barriers to electrification in Latin America: Income, location, and economic development|journal=Energy Strategy Reviews|volume=15|pages=9–18|doi=10.1016/j.esr.2016.11.001|bibcode=2017EneSR..15....9J |issn=2211-467X}}</ref> Guatemala's post-civil war efforts to improve electrical access in the countryside have proceeded under the auspices of the Rural Electrification Plan (Spanish: PER), a public-private partnership between the government's Ministry of Education and Mines (Mineduc) and private power companies.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Grogan|first=Louise|date=2018|title=Time use impacts of rural electrification: Longitudinal evidence from Guatemala|journal=Journal of Development Economics|language=en|volume=135|pages=304–317|doi=10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.03.005|s2cid=155166026}}</ref> Over the period 2000 to 2011, the PER improved rates of electrical grid connectivity among non-indigenous (62 to 82 percent) and indigenous (48 to 70 percent) households in Guatemala.<ref name=":2" /> Continuity of the electrical grid is robust, with both groups reporting only about one hour per day of unavailability.<ref name=":2" /> Even when rural users are connected to the grid and pay subsidized rates, they often have difficulty affording electrical appliances, which translates into low power consumption (less than five percent of average US residential usage).<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Matthew J|date=2005|title=Electrifying Rural Guatemala: Central Policy and Rural Reality|journal=Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy|language=en|volume=23|issue=2|pages=173–189|doi=10.1068/c14r|bibcode=2005EnPlC..23..173T |s2cid=56233492|issn=0263-774X}}</ref> This low power usage by rural customers is often not profitable for power companies,<ref name=":3" /> disincentivizing further expansion of the grid. As of 2014, one third of Guatemala's poorest rural residents still lacked electricity.<ref name=":0" /> By contrast, only around 8% of high-income rural residents lacked service,<ref name=":0" /> demonstrating that affordability plays a role in the accessibility of electrical grids.

In 2016, domestic hydroelectric power supplied the majority (about 34 percent) of Guatemala's electricity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnee.gob.gt/estudioselectricos/Docs/Atlas%20SNI-2017-BR.pdf|title=República de Guatemala: Atlas del Sistema de Transmisión y Generación Eléctrica, 2017|last=Arroyo|first=Arnoldo|date=2017|website=Comisión Nacional de Energía Eléctrica, Guatemala|access-date=2019-05-12}}</ref> The planning process for constructing new hydropower dams was updated by the Guatemalan Congress in 1996 and 2007 (Decree 93–96, the "General Law of Electricity"),<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last1=Aguilar-Støen|first1=Mariel|last2=Hirsch|first2=Cecilie|date=2017|title=Bottom-up responses to environmental and social impact assessments: A case study from Guatemala|journal=Environmental Impact Assessment Review|language=en|volume=62|pages=225–232|doi=10.1016/j.eiar.2016.08.003|bibcode=2017EIARv..62..225A }}</ref> giving project developers more power over the process, especially with regards to environmental impact assessments (EIA).<ref name=":4" /> A study in Guatemala covering the period 2009 to 2014 found that private construction firms generally have little knowledge of the rights of rural indigenous peoples their projects may be affecting.<ref name=":4" /> Firms typically hire consultants to perform EIAs and liaise with affected communities.<ref name=":4" /> However, consultants are frequently disinterested in adequately informing rural communities of the potential impacts of proposed projects.<ref name=":4" /> Instead, consultants frequently resort to bribery and manipulation to obtain consent to proceed with hydroelectric projects.<ref name=":4" /> Interlocutors from within the government say that there is internal pressure to approve EIAs even if they are performed inadequately,<ref name=":4" /> showing that visions of Guatemala's energy future may be overriding the interests of segments of its populace.