On October 29, 2026, Haiti’s Ministry of Public Works convened a landmark national multi-stakeholder workshop focused on the long-term planning and inclusive development of the country’s long-underperforming electricity sector, in partnership with the Technical Execution Unit under the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the National Energy Sector Regulatory Authority (ANARSE).
Chaired by Public Works Minister Engineer Joseph Almathe Pierre Louis, the gathering brought together cross-ministerial representatives including Planning Minister Sandra Paulemon and Environment Minister Valéry Fils-Aimé, alongside global technical and financial partners, and leading local energy industry operators to co-design a context-specific, sustainable national energy framework. In his opening address, Minister Pierre Louis pushed back against the pattern of uncoordinated, ad-hoc governance that has long stalled Haiti’s national recovery, stating, “Haiti will not recover through improvisation. It will recover through discipline, planning, and institutional rigor.” He emphasized that universal electrification is far more than a technical exercise of expanding power plants, transmission lines and distribution networks: it is a foundational pillar of advancing human dignity, delivering equitable territorial justice, boosting local economic competitiveness, and upholding core national sovereignty.
This paradigm shift positions reliable, widespread electricity access as the central driver of Haiti’s broader social and economic transformation. The planned upgrades are set to unlock critical development gains: powering agricultural irrigation systems across the fertile Artibonite region, supporting post-harvest food processing and cold storage infrastructure to cut produce waste in the southern departments, enabling the expansion of cold-chain logistics for the coastal fishing industry, and slashing exorbitant operational costs for small and medium-sized local enterprises. “We do not simply want to light up homes. We want to brighten the prospects for our population,” Minister Pierre Louis affirmed.
The multi-pronged electrification strategy rests on a core architecture of six independent regional grids, which will manage localized power generation, transmission, distribution and end-user connections in a phased rollout, with provisions for future cross-grid interconnection once technical and operational prerequisites are met. To serve remote, geographically isolated communities cut off from central grid infrastructure, the plan also deploys decentralized hybrid mini-grids for clustered rural settlements and standalone residential solar systems for highly dispersed, hard-to-reach households. Under the first implementation phase, 50 mini-grids will deliver power to nearly 100,000 households, with additional standalone solar kits distributed to 227,000 more households to close immediate access gaps. Minister Pierre Louis stressed that the full policy framework will leave no community behind, covering all 10 national departments, 149 communes and 574 communal sections across Haitian territory.
The official 2027–2032 implementation roadmap sets out binding, measurable targets: raising the national household electricity access rate to 60%, rolling out 250,000 new formal power connections (150,000 of which will be delivered via decentralized off-grid solutions), and cutting persistent technical and commercial power losses to below 35%. The plan also outlines a goal of building 200 megawatts of reliable generation capacity for the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, and 80 megawatts for the rest of the country, paired with a national workforce development program to train 500 local technicians and energy sector managers to build permanent, domestic institutional expertise.
Preliminary cost estimates for the full multi-year program range from $5.7 billion to $5.9 billion USD, a baseline figure that will be updated to accommodate additional long-term generation investment needs as the project progresses. Several priority solar projects are already under active construction to accelerate near-term gains: a 13.4-megawatt solar farm paired with battery energy storage in Caracol, in the Northeast department, is set to deliver stable power supplies to five adjacent communities including Caracol, Limonade, Sainte-Suzanne, Trou-du-Nord and Terrier-Rouge. A separate 4-megawatt solar plant with integrated storage at the Monfleury site outside Jacmel is also nearing completion, designed to feed into the local southern regional grid. These two facilities combined add 17.4 megawatts of new operational solar capacity to Haiti’s energy portfolio. Two additional 15 to 20 megawatt solar-plus-storage pilot facilities are currently in the pre-construction planning stages for Les Cayes and Fort-Liberté, while a suite of hybrid mini-grid deployments are scheduled for 11 remote municipalities across the country: Vallières, Mont-Organisé, Capotille, Tiburon, La Cahouane, Marfranc, Moron, Chambellan, Beaumont, and Dame-Marie.
Closing the workshop, Minister Pierre Louis called for immediate, accountable action to turn strategic planning into tangible, life-changing outcomes for Haitian citizens, stating, “Electrifying Haiti means unlocking its potential. Generating energy means supporting national production. Building infrastructure means paving the way for prosperity.” The Ministry of Public Works has identified the core immediate challenge as translating the newly agreed policy directives into on-the-ground deliverables that expand equitable electricity access and deliver sustained, long-term support for the country’s national economic renewal.
Development of the electricity sector in Haiti
