Venezuela Signs GE Vernova Deal to Rebuild Collapsing Power Grid

Venezuela has entered a landmark agreement with US energy firm GE Vernova to repair and modernize its failing national power grid, a system that has left most of the country enduring daily blackouts lasting up to ten hours. On June 15, 2026, acting President Delcy Rodriguez signed a memorandum of understanding at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, alongside state-owned utility Corpoelec and GE Vernova, the energy division spun off from General Electric in 2024.

The plan calls for restoring 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity within the next 24 months and more than 5,000 megawatts within four years. The agreement covers electricity generation, transmission, and substations, and follows reforms to Venezuela's electricity law approved by the National Assembly. Those reforms opened the sector to foreign investment after fifteen years of an exclusive state monopoly, ending a framework dating back to the 2007 nationalization under Hugo Chavez.

As of late June 2026, the deal remains at the memorandum stage. Rodriguez has instructed technical teams to convert the document into a binding contract as quickly as possible so that physical work can begin. GE Vernova executives, including Chief Sustainability Officer Roger Martella, said they already have an agreement on the technical details and aim to have the system functioning as well as possible within a few months. The company plans to strengthen the national electric system over the next twelve months and beyond.

The scale of the problem is severe. Venezuela has an installed capacity of around 36,732 megawatts but operates at only about 36 percent of that figure. The country now consumes roughly 16 percent more electricity than it generates, around 12,000 megawatts per day. The Guri hydroelectric plant, officially the Simon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant, supplies close to 70 percent of national electricity and sits at the heart of the crisis. Western states such as Zulia, the center of the oil industry and a major agricultural region, have faced some of the heaviest rationing.

GE Vernova technical teams spent six weeks auditing the electrical system before the signing. Their assessment confirmed the deteriorated state of Corpoelec facilities, the result of years of underinvestment. The agreement also includes training for Venezuelan engineers and a phased rollout of modernized infrastructure, with early work expected to focus on the most critical failures in Caracas and Maracaibo.

The entry of a major US company into Venezuelan critical infrastructure signals that normalization with Washington is shifting from political signaling toward concrete economic cooperation. The US charge d'affaires in Caracas, John Barrett, attended the ceremony, and Rodriguez first held talks with General Electric in April. Analysts caution that previous grid overhauls have stalled. A $5 billion agreement with China's Sinohydro in 2019 was derailed by delays and corruption allegations, and observers question whether the political environment will allow GE Vernova to complete the work.