Most of the generation infrastructure in Haiti is very old and costly to maintain and operate. In 2006, total installed capacity was only 270 MW, of which about 70% was thermal and 30% hydroelectric. There are currently three large thermal plants and one hydroelectric plant serving the metropolitan area and some smaller thermal and hydroelectric plants in the provinces. The most important plants are:
- P?ligre, an hydroelectric plant with 54 MW of installed capacity. However, its actual power varies between 30 MW in the rainy season and 10 MW in the dry one.
- Carrefour, a 50 MW thermal plant with just 12 MW of actually available capacity.
- Varreux 1 and 2, two thermal plants with installed capacities of 33 MW and 21 MW respectively which can just provide 12.5 MW
The large difference between installed and available capacity stems from serious maintenance deficiencies which have led, for example, to just one quarter of hydroelectric capacity to be available. The repairs carried out in Varreux and Carrefour should allow for 15 MW of additional capacity.
Generation in 2003 was 550 GWh, with 54% coming from thermal sources and the remaining from hydroelectric ones.
In 2003, total electricity consumption in Haiti was 510 GWh,[6] Average per capita consumption in 2004 was 75 kWh, the lowest in the LAC region. The share for each sector is as follows:[2]
- Residential: 60%
- Industrial : 20%
- Transport : 15%
- Services : 5%
The Haitian electricity sector has a national installed capacity that is largely insufficient to meet a demand of 157 MW in Port au Prince and of 550 MW at the national level. This electricity shortage has created a situation in which tens of thousands of households and institutions (e.g. hospitals, schools) have to rely on their own diesel generators and as a result spend large portions of their income on fuel to run those generators. In order to partially address this deficit, the government has signed contracts with Sogener, a private power supplier, for a total of about 65 MW
