In the heart of South America, Paraguay’s national electricity administrator, ANDE (Administración Nacional de Electricidad), faced a challenge that would define the country’s economic future. Managing electrical infrastructure across over 400,000 square kilometers, from the bustling streets of Asunción to remote rural communities along the Brazilian border, required a technological leap that traditional systems couldn’t provide.
“We serve 1.5 million customers across one of the most geographically diverse countries in South America,” explains ANDE’s Director of Technical Operations. “Our transmission lines cross rivers, forests, and agricultural lands. Our distribution network reaches communities that are hours from the nearest city. We needed a solution that could work everywhere, for everyone.”
The Infrastructure Challenge at Scale
ANDE’s mission extends beyond keeping the lights on. As Paraguay’s sole electric utility, the organization manages everything from massive hydroelectric facilities to individual residential connections. The complexity is staggering: thousands of kilometers of transmission lines carrying power from the Itaipu Dam, one of the world’s largest hydroelectric facilities, and distribution networks spreading like capillaries to every corner of the nation.
Before Atlas, ANDE’s field operations relied on systems designed for a different era. Paper-based inspection reports took weeks to process. Maintenance crews operating in remote areas had no way to access historical infrastructure data. Most critically, coordinating work between transmission and distribution teams, often operating in the same areas but with different systems, led to inefficiencies that increased costs and extended outage times.
“We had engineers in the field making critical decisions with outdated information,” recalls a senior field engineer. “A crew might drive four hours to inspect a transmission tower, only to discover that the access road had been washed out months ago, information that another crew had documented but couldn’t share effectively.”
Building a Continental Solution
When ANDE partnered with Cliffhanger Solutions, the scope was ambitious: create a unified platform that could serve both transmission and distribution operations, work reliably in areas with no connectivity, and scale to support thousands of field workers across an entire nation.
Atlas’s architecture proved perfect for ANDE’s needs. The platform’s offline-first design meant crews in the Chaco region, where cellular coverage is sparse, had the same capabilities as those working in Asunción. More importantly, Atlas’s sophisticated synchronization ensured that when these remote crews returned to connected areas, their data seamlessly integrated with the national system.
“The first time our crews used Atlas in the field, they couldn’t believe it,” the operations director remembers. “They had the entire network at their fingertips, every transformer, every pole, every transmission tower. And it worked whether they were online or completely disconnected.”
Unifying Transmission and Distribution
Atlas’s flexibility allowed ANDE to maintain separate workflows for transmission and distribution while sharing critical data between teams. A distribution crew identifying vegetation encroaching on transmission lines could instantly flag it for the transmission maintenance team. Transmission engineers planning tower maintenance could see nearby distribution infrastructure, coordinating outages to minimize customer impact.
The platform’s role-based access control proved essential for managing this complexity. Transmission specialists saw detailed technical parameters for high-voltage equipment, while distribution crews focused on the local network information they needed. Managers could view both systems, enabling coordinated decision-making that was previously impossible.
This unified approach delivered immediate benefits. Maintenance windows that previously required separate outages for transmission and distribution work could now be combined. Crews could share equipment and resources when working in the same area. Most importantly, ANDE could now see its entire network as an integrated system rather than separate silos.
Cross-Border Innovation
As part of the Southern Cone’s interconnected power market, ANDE must coordinate with utilities in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Atlas’s enterprise-grade security and flexible integration capabilities enabled secure data sharing with international partners while maintaining sovereignty over critical infrastructure information.
“We can now share real-time information about cross-border transmission lines with our neighbors while keeping sensitive data protected,” notes ANDE’s head of international operations. “During regional weather events, this coordination has prevented cascading failures that could have affected millions across multiple countries.”
The platform’s multilingual capabilities ensured that field crews were comfortable with the technology regardless of whether they preferred Spanish or Guaraní, Paraguay’s official languages. This attention to local needs, combined with global standards, exemplified Cliffhanger Solutions’ approach to international deployments.
Transforming National Infrastructure
The impact of Atlas on ANDE’s operations has been transformative. Field crews now complete infrastructure assessments 40% faster, with dramatically improved data quality. The digital transformation has enabled predictive maintenance programs that were impossible with paper-based systems, reducing equipment failures and extending asset life.
Perhaps most significantly, ANDE can now make data-driven decisions about infrastructure investment. With comprehensive digital records of every asset, from transmission towers to residential transformers, the utility can optimize capital allocation based on actual condition and criticality rather than age-based replacement cycles.
“We’re not just maintaining infrastructure anymore,” explains the Director of Strategic Planning. “We’re building a smart grid from the ground up, and Atlas plays an integral part. Every inspection, every maintenance activity, every upgrade, it all feeds into a living digital model of our national electrical system.”
Empowering a Nation’s Growth
The benefits extend beyond operational efficiency. Reliable electricity is fundamental to Paraguay’s economic development, and ANDE’s enhanced capabilities directly support national growth. Industrial developments can be connected faster. Rural electrification projects can be planned with precise infrastructure data. Most importantly, system reliability has improved significantly, reducing outages that cost the economy millions in lost productivity.
For ANDE’s thousands of field workers, Atlas has transformed daily operations. Crews in remote areas no longer feel disconnected from the larger organization. Young engineers joining ANDE find a modern, technology-forward utility that rivals any in the world. Experienced technicians see their decades of knowledge captured and shared digitally, ensuring nothing is lost when they retire.
A Model for the Americas
ANDE’s successful implementation of Atlas has attracted attention from utilities across Latin America. Delegations from neighboring countries regularly visit to see how a national utility transformed its operations through strategic technology adoption. The partnership between Cliffhanger Solutions and ANDE has become a model for how North American technology expertise can combine with South American operational excellence to create world-class infrastructure management.
As Paraguay continues its rapid economic development, ANDE is prepared to support that growth. The utility that once struggled to coordinate paper reports across vast distances now operates with the efficiency and sophistication of the world’s most advanced utilities. From the control rooms in Asunción to the most remote maintenance crews in the Chaco, everyone works with the same real-time information, united by Atlas in the mission to power Paraguay’s future.
The success story of ANDE and Atlas demonstrates that geographic boundaries need not limit operational excellence. By choosing technology designed for the realities of field operations, offline capability, cross-platform support, and enterprise-grade security, utilities anywhere can achieve transformational results. For the 1.5 million customers who depend on ANDE for reliable electricity, and for the nation of Paraguay as it builds toward a prosperous future, the partnership with Cliffhanger Solutions has illuminated a path forward that others across the Americas are now eager to follow.
