Electropaz Project Summary Of Project Information (SPI)       Project Name:    Bolivia: Electropaz      Region:Latin America and Caribbean   Sector:   Project No:009372   Projected Board Date:June 10, 1999   Company Name:Electropaz   Technical Partner and/or Major Shareholders    	Iberdrola Group is the Sponsor and owns 57% of Electropaz.  Iberdrola serves over eight million customers and operates 16,000MW of installed capacity in Spain.  In 1997, Iberdrola had a net worth of about US$ 8.3 billion and a net income of about US$ 720 million.  Other shareholders include:  Paz Holdings SPC owns 33% of Electropaz and is an investment vehicle owned by US institutional investors including AIG-GE Capital Latin America Fund, Edison Capital, and GE Capital Services Structured Finance Group, Inc.; and Banco Central Hispano Americano, S.A. owns 10% of Electropaz and is a Spanish Bank with a presence in Latin America.    Project Cost Including proposed IFC investment    	IFC''s proposed investment is a US$25 million "A" Loan.    Location of project and Description of site    	Electropaz is majority owned by Iberdrola, the largest private electric utility in Spain.  Iberdrola acquired Electropaz in December 1995 from Cobee, Bolivias largest private utility, which was required under the 1994 Electricity Law to divest its distribution assets.  Electropaz has a 40-year Concession Agreement, services about 250,000 customers (more than 85% are residential customers) and distributes around 35% of all the electricity distributed in Bolivia.  Though the company has implemented measures to improve its efficiency, there are plans to make substantial investments over the next few years to expand the service area and realize additional improvements in system losses.    Description of Company and Purpose of Project    	The project involves the improvement of the distribution system of Electropaz, a private Bolivian electricity distribution company serving the cities of La Paz and El Alto.  IFC is considering extending a corporate loan in the form of a US$25 million A Loan.  IFC''s role in providing this financing is to develop the effective functioning of the distribution sector which is critical for the long-term development of a competitive and efficient private power sector.  This investment will enhance the quality of service to the end consumer.     Environmental Category and Issues    	This is a category B project according to IFC''s environmental and social review procedure.  Environmental, social and health and safety issues associated with the project include:  existing environmental conditions, siting and right-of-way alignment for new facilities, solid and liquid waste management, management of transformers or equipment containing PCBs, possible impacts on local residents, and worker health, safety and training programs.  The supply of energy to the city of La Paz is currently provided through 10 substations with underground network feeder of medium tension.  The city of El Alto supply is through 5 substations with aerial network feeders.  Electropaz has established a master plan that identifies all the measures to improve the operation of electric power distribution including the upgrading and improvement of several substations.  Electropaz has prepared a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) for the phase-out of capacitors containing PCBs.  Solid waste such as soil generated during the various activities will be reused in the construction activities; other materials such as wires, and cables will be recycled.  Domestic waste generated will be collected by a private contractor and disposed of according to local regulations.  In the Tejada Alpacoma area of El Alto, a high-tension tower caused concern among the community when severe rains caused a landslide in an area approximately 100 meters away.  Electropaz, the community of Alpacoma, and the municipal government had several meetings in which information regarding the project was presented to the community.  The number of participants in the meetings was about 80 people.  An agreement on siting and alignment between the parties was reached on February 12, 1999.  No significant impact on residences or property will take place.  Electropaz has a formal training and safety program for employees.  The training for operators is provided every six months, and for others once a year.  Employees are required to use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and the level of safety for the PPE depends on the type of work performed.    The  is  from the InfoShop.       Host country location of environmental documents    Bolivia and the United States of America      Date SPI sent to InfoShop May 6th 1999   This Summary of Project Information is prepared and distributed to the public in advance of consideration of the proposed transaction by the Corporations Board of Directors.  It is provided for the purpose of enhancing the transparency of IFCs activities and should not be construed as presuming the outcome of IFC Board consideration.    For Additional Information contact:  Corporate Relations Unit -   telephone: (202) 473-7711   facsimile: (202) 974-4384  Environmental documents for this project are available at http://www.ifc.org and from the World Bank InfoShop (http://www.worldbank.org/html/pic/aboutinfo.html).