Venezuela, named the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela since 1999, is located on the northern coast of South America. The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea. The capital is Caracas and the official language is Spanish. Venezuela is known widely for its petroleum industry, the environmental diversity of its territory, and its natural features. It covers an area of 916,445 km2 with a population of 31.98 million in 2017 as per the World Bank statistics.  

Venezuela is a founding member of the OPEC and one of the world’s top oil producers. It holds some of the largest proven reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Venezuela also has the second-largest natural gas reserves, in the Americas, after the United States. The country largely depends on hydroelectricity for most of its electricity needs. The latter accounted for 66% of its electricity generation in 2015. The remaining 34% of electricity was generated by fossil fuels, namely oil and natural gas.

Large, state-owned companies dominate the electricity sector in Venezuela. The government controls the electric sector through the CORPOELEC, a state-owned holding company created in 2007 to consolidate the power sector. CORPOELEC is responsible for the entire electricity supply chain, controlling all major electricity companies in Venezuela including “Electrificacion del Caroni” (EDELCA), which supplies more than 70% of the country's electricity.

Hydroelectricity production is concentrated in the Caroní River in Guayana Region. Today it has 4 different dams. The largest hydro plant is the Guri dam(officially Simón Bolívar Hydroelectric Power Plant) with 10,300 MW of installed capacity, which makes it the third-largest hydroelectric plant in the world. The other three dams include the Caruachi (officially Francisco de Miranda Hydroelectric Power Plant), Macagua (officially Antonio José de Sucre Hydroelectric Power Plant) and Tocoma (officially Manuel Piar Hydroelectric Power Plant).1

When it comes to wind and solar power, Venezuela lags behind not only with respect to developed countries, but among Latin American countries as well. Even though the Venezuelan State has considered the development of alternative energies, this has not been sustained over time.

One of the objectives of the Venezuelan "Plan de la patria" is to make Venezuela a leader in the social, economic and political realm of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Plan enlists goals and pathways to achieve those goals in a period between 2013 and 2019. Some of the goals were stated to be achieved through ‘increased consciousness of environmental considerations and deployment of renewable energy technologies.