Eletrobras, Brazil’s power holding utility, will be investing $27bn between 2010 and 2014 to improve the nation’s ageing electricity grid and expand overseas, CEO Jose Antonio Muniz Lopes said.

The firm will be invest BRL6bn ($3.5bn) of the budgeted BRL8bn ($4.7bn) this year due to delays in environmental licensing.

“Unfortunately, we will invest less than we wanted to between September and December,” Lopes told Reuters.

Eletrobras, which controls more than 80% of energy generation in Brazil, also has plans to buy a minority stake in a US utility in a move to expand overseas.