Colombia's 2026 Multidimensional Energy Poverty Report (IPEM) confirmed on July 8 that the share of households in energy poverty fell from 22.3% in 2024 to 20.6% in 2025 – a 1.7 percentage point reduction equivalent to 227,532 households and 641,640 people exiting energy poverty in a single year.
Read moreWith the International Research Institute for Climate and Society placing the probability of El Niño at 80-90% for the second half of 2026 – and projections suggesting it could be among the most intense episodes of the past 30 years – Bancóldex, Colombia's business development bank, has launched a new phase of its "Energía Solar se Reactiva" program, making CoP$100B available to companies of all sizes for the installation of photovoltaic solar systems.
Read moreEcopetrol's July 9th El Niño contingency plan reveals a company that has quietly become a material contributor to Colombia's electricity system resilience – not as a customer of the grid but as an self-generator whose 1,863 MWp of installed capacity can operate independently of the national interconnected system and thereby reduce pressure on shared reservoir levels.
Read moreAs Colombia faces its most demanding El Niño season in years, a common thought has emerged in public debate: the idea that the country should simply turn on its entire thermal generation fleet to protect reservoir levels.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy presented its final four-year electricity sector balance on July 9, framing the Petro government's legacy as a structural transformation of Colombia's generation matrix – and using the occasion to publicly condemn the de la Espriella transition team's suspension of the energy sector handover process as an act of institutional irresponsibility with direct consequences for El Niño preparedness.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development issued Resolution 0808 on June 30th, establishing for the first time the environmental terms of reference that developers must follow when preparing Environmental Impact Studies for offshore wind energy projects.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Transport published a draft resolution on July 7th establishing the country's first comprehensive national regulatory framework for light electric personal urban mobility vehicles – covering electric scooters, skateboards, monowheels, and electric bicycles – as a second public comment round under Law 2486 of 2025.
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Colombia's reservoir system entered July in better shape than May but still short of where XM needs it to be and the improvement is almost certainly temporary.
Read moreThe designation of María Nohemí Arboleda as the incoming Mines and Energy Minister received an immediate institutional welcome from the Caribbean region on July 14, when the RAP Caribe – Colombia's Caribbean regional planning body – together with the Comités Intergremiales of Atlántico, Bolívar, Magdalena, Córdoba, Cesar, and Sucre jointly issued a statement of support and put forward a structured roadmap for the incoming minister to begin addressing the Caribbean energy crisis from day one.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy published an updated regulatory framework for the Colombia Solar program on July 2, replacing the earlier 2026 resolution with a more detailed set of technical, financial, and operational rules governing how solar photovoltaic systems are installed in strata 1, 2, and 3 households connected to the national interconnected system.
Read moreVice president-elect José Manuel Restrepo made the economic cost of Colombia's energy crisis concrete on July 12th, posting on X after a meeting with sector leaders convened by El Tiempo that a blackout under current El Niño conditions would cost the country approximately CoP$204B per hour of lost supply.
Read moreColombia's electricity service quality improved measurably in 2025, with 74.6% of municipalities meeting the regulatory standard for interruption duration per user and 80.1% meeting the frequency standard, a meaningful step forward from 2024.
Read moreFor the electricity sector, the naming of María Nohemí Arboleda Arango as Minister of Mines and Energy is the most reassuring cabinet announcement of the transition period.
Read moreColombia's incoming government faces a climate scenario that has hardened since earlier in 2026.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy and EPM are accelerating construction of the first prototype of the Cuadras Energéticas ("Energy Blocks") model – a community-scale distributed solar generation concept designed to bring shared clean energy to urban neighborhoods block by block.
Read moreA legal proceeding before the Administrative Tribunal of Cundinamarca has emerged as the sector's best near-term hope for unlocking the resources needed to keep Colombia's thermal generation fleet fueled through El Niño and Natalia Gutiérrez, president of the Consejo Gremial Nacional, used a detailed X thread on July 2 to call on the Tribunal to act urgently.
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