The project will support the management of the energy trade among Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama’s networks along with the Red de Transmisión Regional with Mexico and Colombia
The Lab software of the IT company in Panama will develop most applications
The Regional Market of Electricity is one of the main resources of the countries in the area to boost economic and social growth
Indra was chosen by the BID (Inter-American Development Bank) to design, develop and implement the management systems that will support the new Regional Electricity Market of Central America (MER). The IT company's software Lab in Panama (software development centre) will be responsible for the bulk of this project. Funding surpasses ¬ 700.000.
MER is a wholesale electricity market created as an initiative by Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama's governments to manage power imports and exports among them. It aims at boosting projects regarding regional generation and at increasing exchange to encourage economic and social growth in the countries of the area.
The systems to be developed by Indra will manage the electricity transactions at an international level among market agents (generator companies, merchandisers, distributors and big power users) as well as the use of the electricity network under the direction of the Ente Operador Regional (EOR), a Department of MER and the national operators of each of the six countries.
Besides this, Indra will develop the power pre-dispatch and redispatch information system, whose objective is to schedule the amount of energy every agent should either inject in or withdraw from the Regional Electricity Market's network.
Propelling development and encouraging investments
Leonardo Benítez, Manager of the Utilities Market of Indra, highlights the strategic value of the Project for Central America's economic and social growth: “A proper management of MER will meet the increasing demand of power in these countries and will create the necessary conditions to improve quality and guarantee electricity in the area. Furthermore, the regional market will encourage scale economy investments, hence benefiting Central American countries“
MER is born of the SIEPAC project (Central American Electrical Interconnection System) which will significantly increase the interconnection capacity of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama's national electricity networks. MER has its own legislation to which the national markets of every country are subject. It is governed by two entities: CRIE (Electricity Interconnection Commission) and EOR (Regional Operator Entity) that operate and regulate the market respectively.
Broad experience in projects for the utilities market
Indra has provided the management systems of energetic companies and operators (OMEL and REE) with support, maintenance and non-stop improvement from the beginning of the liberalization of the utilities market. This knowledge has been employed in other countries, for instance; the Scheck Republic's Market operator besides many other projects in the field of regulatory consultancy in Central Europe and Southeast Asia, with outstanding projects such as the design of the new regulatory frame in Viet Nam and the regional market of Mekong.
Regarding systems and applications, Indra's Open Utilities technology stands out. It is a leader solution in the sector with more than 110 clients in more than 30 countries. Open Utilities is used for the management of utilities companies including water and sanitation. Open Utilities products cover a business cycle of utilities companies thoroughly, specifically, the support to managements of wholesale electricity markets and Trading. These products have been implemented in several companies across the globe, such as EDP in Portugal, PETROBRAS in Brazil or ISAGEN in Colombia.
Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to stock market capitalisation, and it is one of the three Spanish companies with more investment in R&D. In 2007, revenues reached € 2.167 M, of which a third came from the international market. The company employs more than 23.500 professionals and has clients in more than 93 countries.