VISIONARIES OF GUAYANA: EXAMPLE AND VALIDITY OF PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENT

VISIONARIES OF GUAYANA: EXAMPLE AND VALIDITY OF PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENT

"Long-term planning is not about future decisions but about the future with current decisions" Peter Drucker

A process of Planning the Economy of a country must necessarily go through the identification of the potential and opportunities of each region for its assertive use, hence the importance of the orientation of a Sectoral Planning based on the particular conditions and characteristics of each region.

Taking the Guayana Region as an example, it has a potential that has been exploited for the installation and operation of industries associated with, in addition to the mineral resources it possesses, the electrical potential offered by the Caroní River. This experience in Guayana, where I lived and worked for more than 30 years, is clear evidence of Planning for Development, of extraordinary validity that is linked and materialized with the benefits of hydroelectric potential.

The following are the areas that were addressed by the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana in this process of Long-Term Strategic Planning for the development of the country, both in the Guayana region and outside it, that with the approval of the National Executive had a close relationship based on a global, comprehensive and complementary vision with other regions of the country seen as a whole.

ELECTRIFICATION OF THE CARONÍ RIVER

The standard of living enjoyed by the countries with the greatest economic and social development is based on the Methodological Design for the Planning of a Sustainable Economy, taking into account all the potentials and opportunities that a country has, associating these, in an integral, complementary, and harmonious way, to its local, regional and national needs.

Due to its resources, characteristics and conditions, the Guayana Region constitutes an emblematic example of Planning for Development, which, with its works, especially that of the complex of hydroelectric plants of the Caroní river, EDELCA, forms the platform for all development of the area.

Although it was not conceived to supply electrical energy to the entire country, this platform remains, 67 years after its conception, as the backbone of the nation's energy supply. Fortunately, such Long-Term Strategic Planning in the southern region of the country was so visionary that today, in 2020, all Venezuelans depend on a platform conceived in 1953, the year in which Rafael Alfonzo Ravard is appointed President of the Commission of Studies for the Hydroelectric Development of the Caroní River. In 1961 and under his presidency, CVG signed an agreement with the Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University for technical assistance in the development and planning of a new urban nucleus, Puerto Ordaz.

This platform made possible the foundation of Puerto Ordaz, the first and true development pole created in the country, helping to attenuate the little order and lack of planning in the distribution of the population that historically has been excessively concentrated and with locations of misery in the "belt" that encompasses the Andes mountain range, Zulia and the coastal zone from Falcón state to Sucre state. In this sense, it contributed to the deconcentration of the overpopulated areas that already existed in the country, decentralization, and to assimilate part of the population growth, taking advantage of the benefits and potential of the region. Ciudad Guayana went from having 4.000 inhabitants in 1951 to approximately 700.000 in the year 2.000. 

Puerto Ordaz offered the country a harmonious habitat that meant its zoning, urbanization, construction of houses, public services, hospitals, schools, universities, urban and extra-urban communication routes, the construction of the Angosturita bridge at the mouth of the Caroní River with a built-in railroad. Construction and installation of the steel complex and the aluminum industries, with the corresponding incorporation of service companies around them and the generation of decent and productive jobs that brought with it a substantial improvement in the living conditions of many Venezuelans from different regions of the country and citizens of other latitudes.

 

The Plan for the Supply of Electric Power at the National Level, period 2003 - 2012, was presented by the engineer Ángel Negrín representing CVG EDELCA, at the XXXVI Round Table on the Electric Industry, Advances of the Reform of the Venezuelan Electric Sector, in Barquisimeto, Lara State, in September 2002. It contemplated a new generation target programmed of 9,930 megawatts to reach a grand total of approximately 30,000 megawatts by 2012.

The criteria considered in the plan for preparing the demand-generation balances, among others, included:

• an average year-on-year growth of 4.5%

• the new oil developments that were known for the time

• the new industrial developments in Guayana: for the aluminum industry, the V Alcasa Line and the VI Venalum line, the Danielli Steel Project, the Serfoca Forest Project, for the production of newsprint, an item that does not exist in the country and of which were imported for the year 2003, 140,000 tons per year to supply national and regional newspapers.

As support and complement to the National Electric System, consisting of a series of Thermoelectric Plants located in the rest of the territory, the interconnection with part of the rest of the country was installed through high voltage lines. Support and complement of the National Electric System, which for the year 2000 would mean the use of the Thermoelectric and the Hydroelectric Plants in a process of alternating supply balance depending on the season or periods of drought and / or rain, that is, during the descent or ascent of the levels of the dams. 

For the year 2000, the total electricity supply capacity of Venezuela was designed and made up of 40% of the supply capacity from thermoelectric plants, and 60% from hydroelectric plants. Thermoelectric generation has always had a sufficient design capacity to supply energy to the country's demand in dry years. As the design of hydroelectric generation depends on rain, there is always a guaranteed minimum value in dry years (firm power).

During the dry season, the hydroelectric plants would work at a lower intensity, being compensated with a greater use of the capacity of the thermoelectric plants, and vice versa, in times of rain when high levels of water are generated in the dams, there would be available the energy reserves of hydroelectric plants. In this way, an uninterrupted electrical service was guaranteed forever for the entire country.

Currently, three Hydroelectric Power Plants are operating, one is under construction, one in Conceptual Engineering, and three plant projects have been formulated.

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