Curaçao’s recurring power outages are forcing the island to confront a fundamental question: are Aqualectra’s major investments actually delivering the reliability that the economy needs?
Curaçao is investing hundreds of millions of guilders in its electricity supply. Aqualectra is modernizing the grid, building the new 40 MW Salu power plant, investing in battery storage and increasing the share of renewable energy.
Yet we continue to face power outages and controlled load shedding.
In 2025, Curaçao experienced an almost island-wide blackout. Another major outage followed in April 2026. In July, Aqualectra was forced to implement load shedding after expected wind generation of approximately 36 MW largely disappeared. Parts of the island were again disconnected in August because insufficient generation capacity was available.
This is beginning to look like a pattern.
Not just a technical problem
It is too easy to explain every incident separately: maintenance, a malfunctioning generator, declining wind production or an unexpected increase in demand.
The real question is:
Why is the electricity system not better equipped to absorb these events?
An important distinction must be made. A blackout is an uncontrolled interruption of the electricity system. Load shedding is different: parts of the grid are deliberately and temporarily disconnected to prevent the entire system from collapsing.
Both situations, however, matter to society because they demonstrate that, at that particular moment, the electricity system does not have sufficient resilience to absorb a disruption or capacity shortage without substantial consequences for consumers.
A reliable electricity system should not function only when every generating unit is available and the wind is blowing. It should be capable of dealing with generating units going offline and fluctuations in renewable energy production.
That is currently the biggest challenge.
Sustainable does not automatically mean reliable
Curaçao needs to make its energy supply more sustainable. Increasing wind and solar generation can reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels and potentially lower generation costs over time.
But there is an important difference between installed capacity and available capacity.
A wind farm may be capable of producing dozens of megawatts, but when the wind disappears, so does that production. Solar panels generate electricity during daylight hours, but not during the evening peak.
Curaçao therefore needs sufficient firm capacity alongside renewable energy: generating capacity that is actually available when it is needed.
Recent electricity problems indicate that this is precisely where vulnerabilities remain.
The energy transition itself is not the problem. An inadequately balanced energy transition can be.
Hundreds of millions in investments
Aqualectra is investing heavily. Approximately Cg 233 million was invested in 2025. The company is also developing the new 40 MW Salu power plant, battery storage and modernization of the electricity grid.
These investments are necessary.
But investment cannot be an objective in itself.
Society should therefore be asking: How much reliable capacity does each investment provide? How many outages will it prevent? What is the availability of the new capacity? How much fuel will be saved? What will happen to electricity tariffs? And how much debt is being accumulated to finance these investments?
An investment of one hundred million guilders is successful only when it demonstrably contributes to a better, more reliable and affordable electricity supply.
Profitable does not necessarily mean healthy
Aqualectra is not a financially bankrupt company. On the contrary, it is profitable and investing heavily.
But net profit is only one measure of the performance of a utility company.
A company can be profitable while its infrastructure remains insufficiently robust. That is why Aqualectra should be assessed on more than revenue and net income.
Consumers ultimately benefit more from a reliable electricity supply than from an attractive profit figure on paper.
Reliability of supply, reserve capacity, outage frequency, outage duration and return on investment should therefore be regarded as equally important performance indicators.
Who is responsible for what?
Care is also required when assigning responsibility.
Aqualectra is responsible for the operational management of a significant part of Curaçao’s electricity chain. But the company does not operate in a vacuum.
The government, as shareholder and policymaker, and the RAC, as regulator, also have responsibilities.
The government helps determine policy direction. The regulator establishes frameworks for tariffs, quality and security of supply. Aqualectra must operate the infrastructure reliably and efficiently within those frameworks.
The discussion should therefore not be reduced to:
“Who caused the latest outage?”
The much more important question is:
“Has the overall system been designed in such a way that these disruptions can be prevented or absorbed as much as possible?”
The hidden cost of power outages
There is another bill that is barely visible in Aqualectra’s financial statements: the economic damage caused by power outages.
Restaurants lose revenue. Supermarkets risk losing refrigerated and frozen products. Factories must stop production. Hotels may have to compensate guests. Businesses lose income.
Those costs are not automatically incorporated into assessments of the electricity system.
Curaçao should therefore determine the average economic cost of one hour without electricity. The energy sector uses, among other indicators, the concept of Value of Lost Load (VOLL), which estimates the economic value of electricity that could not be supplied.
Only when these societal costs are known can we properly assess the economic value of investments intended to improve reliability.
The answer is not less wind, but a better system
The solution is not to reverse the energy transition.
Curaçao needs an integrated system in which wind, solar energy, battery storage, reliable dispatchable generation and a strong electricity grid complement one another.
The focus should not only be on how many megawatts have been installed, but more importantly on how many megawatts can be guaranteed during peak demand.
That is the key issue.
The new Salu power plant could play an important role in this. Battery storage and modernization of the grid are also essential. Ultimately, however, the question is not how many individual projects are completed, but whether those projects together create a more resilient electricity system.
The most important KPI
The government and Aqualectra should therefore provide much greater transparency on available versus required generating capacity, reserve margins, outage frequency and duration, maintenance and generating-unit failures, battery capacity in both MW and MWh, renewable-energy generation, capital expenditure versus budget, debt development, cost per kWh and the economic losses resulting from electricity interruptions.
That would allow citizens, businesses and members of Parliament not only to be told that the system is improving.
They would be able to measure it.
The question should therefore no longer be:
“Is Aqualectra investing enough?”
It should be:
“Are all these investments delivering the reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity system that Curaçao needs?”
The events of 2025 and 2026 do not yet provide sufficient grounds to answer that question with an unequivocal “yes.”
This is not an attack on Aqualectra. It is a call for mature economic and technical policymaking.
Curaçao does not need an electricity system that works only when everything goes according to plan.
We need a system that continues to function when the wind stops blowing, a generating unit fails, maintenance is required or electricity demand unexpectedly rises.
That is not a luxury.
It is economic infrastructure.
Drs. Luigi A. Faneyte MSc. CFE CICA CCS
Economist, financial expert and parliamentary staff member for PAR in the Curaçao Parliament