Colombia's Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development swore in its new leadership team on August 13, including Sergio Arturo Piñeros Botero as director of the Agencia Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA), the agency responsible for environmental licensing of major electricity infrastructure, from transmission lines to solar and wind farm development.
Read moreErco Energía announced the close of a US$129 million equity Series C round, funds the company said will strengthen its capacity to develop and build energy projects across Colombia.
Read moreAfinia called on authorities in Calamar, Bolívar, to guarantee the safety and mobility of its technical crews after several teams faced detentions and restrictions that have hampered maintenance and modernization work on the municipality's electrical infrastructure.
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XM’s June report provides yet more graphic evidence that despite the rhetoric and ex-President Gustavo Petro’s visceral hatred of the thermogenerating industry, the matrix did indeed shift to protect the reservoirs. We also look at demand growth over the past four years.
Read moreConstruction is progressing on the APBAQ I solar farm in the Juan Mina district, one of Barranquilla's principal energy transition projects, aimed at generating clean power to support the city's public lighting system.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy issued Circular 40034, requiring every ministry, decentralized entity, and other national-level government body to design and implement an Action Plan for energy savings and efficient use within 15 business days.
Read moreAir-e's August electricity rate rose to CoP$890.26/kWh, still below the national average of CoP$957.27/kWh among Colombia's main commercializers.
Read moreResidents of several Riohacha neighborhoods marched on Air-e's office on the Circunvalar avenue the night of August 4, blocking the road to Maicao and throwing stones at the building's façade, with some setting fires nearby.
Read moreThe previous government announced Colombia's most recent Reliability Charge auction, held May 22nd as a success – 15 new generation projects plus an existing plant's expansion, an estimated CoP$16T in investment, and 4,069.7 MW of new capacity assigned to meet demand for December 2029-November 2030. But …
Read moreColombia's El Niño phenomenon is expected to intensify in October and November, prompting think tanks and analysts to call for early-warning mechanisms to avoid any resort to energy rationing.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy provided a full update on electricity restoration following the August 10 earthquake and its aftershocks, which knocked out power to more than 1.5 million users – concentrated in Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, Caldas, Quindío, Cauca, and Nariño – and disconnected roughly 1,700 MW of demand, equivalent to 18% of national consumption at the time.
Read moreAir-e's intervening agent, Jaime Mesa Buitrago, detailed new tiered electricity tariffs at a Consejo Nacional de Operación de Gas (CNO Gas) meeting in Barranquilla led by then Minister Edwin Palma, under which consumers who reduce usage can earn discounts of up to 40%, while those exceeding set thresholds will pay progressively more.
Read moreColombia's electricity sector needs CoP$10-13T in annual generation investment to close firm-energy deficits, with grid infrastructure requiring a similar sum to keep pace with demand growth, figures that could rise further if Colombia pursues broader economy-wide electrification and its 2050 emissions targets, according to Raúl Lancheros, Acolgen's director of sectoral affairs and regulation.
Read moreColombia's National Council for Economic and Social Policy (CONPES) approved the country's first National Hydrogen Policy document, with then-MinEnergia Edwin Palma casting a favorable vote in the non-in-person session, establishing an intersectoral roadmap to develop hydrogen as a strategic sector through 2031.
Read moreColombia's electric vehicle boom has shifted the industry's central challenge from selling cars to building the network that keeps them moving.
Read moreThe Colombian Geothermal Association (AGEOCOL) will hold the 8th National Geothermal Meeting (RENAG 2026) October 27-30 at the SENA Industry and Services Center in Villavicencio, Meta, organized alongside SENA and with support from Germany's GIZ.
Read moreThe national government approved a modification to SPEC LNG's environmental license in Cartagena, adding 58 million cubic feet per day of natural gas capacity to strengthen the country's supply.
Read moreColombia's August 10th magnitude-7.4 earthquake knocked out roughly 18% of national electricity demand, with the heaviest impact concentrated in Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Quindío, Caldas, and Risaralda, according to preliminary information from MinEnergia María Nohemí Arboleda and system operator XM.
Read moreMaría Nohemí Arboleda, sworn in as Colombia's new Minister of Mines and Energy under President Abelardo De la Espriella, summarized the state of the sector bluntly in her first hours in office: "the situation is critical, but not lost."
Read moreThe Asociación Nacional de Empresas de Servicios Públicos y Comunicaciones (Andesco) delivered a "critical" balance of the Petro government's energy record as it left office, warning the incoming administration faces financial, regulatory, and supply risks despite genuine transition-era progress over the past decade.
Read moreColombia's average wholesale spot price reached CoP$562.1/kWh in June 2026, up 395.7% from CoP$113.4/kWh in June 2025 and 8.9% from May, driven by increased thermal generation's share of the mix.
Read moreAn El Espectador retrospective on the Petro government's energy record found sharp disagreement on the electricity side, where genuine renewable-capacity gains sit alongside execution delays and a financial crisis at one of the Caribbean's main distributors.
Read moreThe Household Public Services User League (Liga Nacional de Usuarios de los Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios) pushed back against former Minister Edwin Palma's plan to penalize energy waste during the current drought.
Read moreOn Friday, August 7th Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in as Colombia’s President for 2026 to 2030, a critical period for the county’s energy sector.
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The outgoing Petro government has celebrated surpassing 4.6 GWp of installed solar and wind capacity, exceeding its 4 GWp target under the 6GW+ program and putting clean sources at 74.16% of the national grid’s installed capacity.
Read moreVice President José Manuel Restrepo presented findings from 62 technical transition meetings held with the General Controller, a process he called "historic" in the country's democratic life.
Read moreThe Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (SIC) formally charged Enel Colombia, AES Colombia, and Celsia Colombia, finding preliminary evidence suggesting conduct that may have affected free economic competition in the Mercado de Energía Mayorista (MEM).
Read moreThe Inspector General’s First Delegate for State Contracting suspended Brayan Giraldo Ruiz, executive director of the Fondo de Energías No Convencionales y Gestión Eficiente de la Energía (Fenoge), for three months and opened a disciplinary investigation over alleged irregularities in a contracting process worth more than CoP$164,000 million
Read moreArmando Cuello Navarro, tapped as Vice Minister of Energy under incoming Minister María Nohemí Arboleda, arrives with direct electricity-sector operating experience: he most recently served as general manager of CEO (Compañía Energética de Occidente), the Cauca electricity distributor and Promigas subsidiary, where he led initiatives on innovation, operational efficiency, and sustainability.
Read moreThe Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council announced the selection of Diego Mesa Puyo, Colombia's former Minister of Energy and Mines, as the fund family's next CEO and Chairperson, for an initial four-year term aligned with the GEF-9 funding period.
Read moreFormer Minister of Mines and Energy Amylkar Acosta argues in this El Heraldo opinion column that the risk of simultaneous electricity and natural gas rationing in Colombia is real, not alarmism, though whether it materializes depends on rainfall, thermal-fuel availability, and how quickly contingency measures are adopted.
Read moreThe Comisión de Regulación de Energía y Gas (CREG) announced progress on the long-running Colombia-Panama electricity interconnection project, publishing a Complementary Agreement with Panama's Autoridad Nacional de los Servicios Públicos (ASEP) that establishes the remuneration scheme for the interconnection
Read moreGrupo EPM reported consolidated Q2 2026 revenue of CoP$19.5T, EBITDA of CoP$5T, and net income of CoP$3.2T, attributing the results to "solid operations, efficient use of resources, and a diversified business portfolio."
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy ordered every network operator in the country to mandatorily report information on connection points for generation, cogeneration, self-generation, distributed generation, and energy community projects currently in process, pending approval, awaiting energization, or rejected over the past twelve months,
Read moreThe Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios published "Generación Eléctrica en Colombia 2026: Concentración, Riesgos y Transición Energética," the first study from its new Observatorio de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios, identifying structural vulnerabilities in the national generation fleet even as the country advances on renewables.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy is setting up a dedicated cybersecurity monitoring center (CMS) providing continuous monitoring, early threat detection, and coordinated incident response across the sector's technology infrastructure.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy issued Resolución 40334, simplifying the connection process for public electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid charging stations to the electrical grid, aiming to accelerate deployment of what it called strategic infrastructure for the country's clean mobility transition.
Read moreThe Comisión de Regulación de Energía y Gas (CREG) formally approved a measure offering discounts of up to 40% on electricity bills for households that cut consumption by up to 30%, with surcharges applied to users who exceed reference consumption levels.
Read moreInterconexión Eléctrica S.A. (ISA), Ecopetrol's transmission and infrastructure subsidiary, reported operating revenue of CoP$8.6T for the first half of 2026, up 17% year-on-year, with EBITDA reaching CoP$4.9T (+20%) and net income of CoP$1.3T (+9%).
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Colombia's hydroelectric reservoirs closed July above 80% of capacity nationally, according to XM data -- the level the system operator considers the minimum threshold needed to withstand a drought, and the highest reading recorded so far in 2026.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy formally acknowledged that Colombia needs to incorporate more firm energy to guarantee electricity supply in coming years, asking the Comisión de Regulación de Energía y Gas (CREG) to advance new Firm Energy Obligations (OEF) assignments and hold whatever reconfiguration auctions are needed to strengthen the national grid (SIN).
Read moreSpeculation about a potential sale of Ecopetrol's controlling stake in ISA to Grupo Energía Bogotá (GEB) moved through three distinct stages over three days in late July, ending where it started: interest without a deal.
Read moreA fast-developing El Niño episode -- potentially among the six most intense since 1870 -- has Deutsche Bank warning of inflationary pressure, economic disruption, and possible monetary policy effects across Latin America, with Colombia identified as the region's most exposed economy.
Read moreA public dispute broke out over Air-e's financial trajectory nearly two years into its government intervention, with Caribbean Region Users League coordinator Norman Alarcón directly challenging claims from SuperServicios Felipe Durán that more than 20 actions have been taken to stabilize the utility.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy closed its Clean Energy Contracting Auction with what it framed as a turning point for the country's power system: the first long-term contracting mechanism to incorporate battery energy storage systems (BESS) alongside solar generation, multiplying the country's contracted storage capacity by a factor of ten.
Read moreEmpresas Públicas de Medellín issued a broad appeal tied to El Niño risk this week, notable less for its urgency than for its scope: rather than the single-service warnings that have dominated recent coverage, EPM is flagging conservation needs across water, electricity, and gas simultaneously – a reflection of just how much of Colombia's utility infrastructure runs through the company.
Read moreColombia's National Interconnected System came through the five-day SPEC regasification maintenance window without disruption to grid reliability, and the terminal itself confirmed a clean finish.
Read moreColombia's Constitutional Court reviewed three decrees issued under the Economic Emergency declared by Decreto 150 de 2026 in response to the extreme weather event of early 2026, upholding most measures while striking some provisions and conditioning others to the actually affected areas.
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Nine of the 27 member countries tracked by the Organización Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Energía (Olacde) posted renewable (including hydro) shares above the regional average in April, as the region's overall electricity output climbed 4.5% year-on-year to 164 TWh.
Read moreGrupo Energía Bogotá president Juan Ricardo Ortega delivered his most detailed public assessment yet of Colombia's transmission crisis through two Valora Analitik pieces in consecutive days -- a letter to president-elect De la Espriella and a direct interview. Read together, they form a comprehensive indictment of four years of energy infrastructure paralysis and a precise warning about what comes next if it continues.
Read moreDelivered at the inauguration of a solar project in Manaure, La Guajira, Minister Edwin Palma's July 23rd call for telework and study-from-home schemes represents the most direct government intervention yet on the demand side of Colombia's El Niño preparedness.
Read moreThe resolution enabling private-sector electricity transactions between Colombia and Ecuador was confirmed legally on July 22, Minister Edwin Palma announced via X, clearing the way for the resumption of International Electricity Transactions (TIE) between the two countries in the coming days.
Read moreColombia's two most important La Guajira clean energy infrastructure announcements of the transition period arrived together on July 24: the Colectora 500 kV transmission line -- the dedicated highway for Guajira wind energy -- reaching 90% overall construction completion, and a draft regulatory resolution designed to prevent the wind projects that will connect to it from being cancelled due to the planning mismatches that have dogged Colombia's renewable buildout.
Read moreThe first invoices under the Colombia Solar program have arrived in the Villas de San Pablo neighborhood of Barranquilla -- and the numbers are striking.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy hosted a two-week Regional Training Workshop for Front-Line Officers in Nuclear Physical Security Detection in Bogotá on July 25, organized jointly with the International Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA).
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This morning I read a Bloomberg Energy newsletter piece about the growing disenchantment with LNG for Asian emerging markets importering countries and it got me thinking, again, about the long-term impact on the global energy matrix of the Iran War.
Read moreThe outgoing Petro government issued two related but distinct resolutions in the final weeks of its mandate that together address the structural problems most frequently cited for Colombia's electricity supply crisis: the chronic disconnect between generation and transmission project planning, and the grid's vulnerability to high-impact disruptions from extreme weather, equipment failure, and cyberattack.
Read moreThe outgoing Petro government recorded an important achievement: Colombia's installed capacity in solar and wind energy reached 4,626.73 MWp as of July 17th, 2026, surpassing the 4 GWp milestone of the administration's flagship 6GW+ program and representing a more than twenty-fold expansion from the approximately 200 MWp of non-conventional renewable capacity the government inherited in August 2022.
Read moreColombia's electricity system has crossed a threshold its operator XM had been warning about for years: available firm energy is no longer sufficient to cover projected demand under extreme drought scenarios, and the shortfalls are projected to persist across three consecutive reliability charge periods.
Read moreThe Comisión de Regulación de Energía y Gas (CREG) has named economist Adriana Jiménez Delgado as executive director for a 12-month term, formalized under Resolution CREG 105 015 of 2026.
Read moreWith fewer than two weeks left in his administration, President Gustavo Petro declared a national disaster for the El Niño phenomenon on July 23rd – Colombia's first such declaration linked explicitly to an electricity supply emergency – and simultaneously ordered a CoP$4T budget reallocation to the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD), bringing its total El Niño resources to CoP$8T.
Read moreA comprehensive El Heraldo analysis published July 26th, based on interviews with six sector leaders, delivers the most structured account yet of the structural failures that have placed Colombia in its most vulnerable energy position since the 1992 blackout.
Read moreLa Guajira is the most electricity-poor department in Colombia's Caribbean region, with energy coverage reaching just 54.6% of its territory according to UPME, a figure that puts it well below the already inadequate national rural average of 75.9% that leaves 1.4 million homes across the country dependent on candles, kerosene, and other costly and polluting alternatives.
Read moreColombia's electricity system enters its most exposed five-day window of 2026 on Thursday, when SPEC shuts for scheduled maintenance through August 3rd .
Read moreThe clearest articulation yet of why El Niño is simultaneously a gas crisis and an electricity crisis came from Tomás González in a recent interview with El Tiempo, in which the former Mines and Energy Minister mapped the convergence of pressures the de la Espriella government will face from day one.
Read moreOutgoing Minister Edwin Palma disclosed on July 22nd, at a Colombia Solar ceremony in Barranquilla, that the transition team coordinating the sector handover for the incoming De la Espriella government had sent the ministry an official written request to abstain from continuing to execute and expand the Colombia Solar program during the transition period.
Read morePetro's outgoing government filed its final tax reform before the new Congress on July 21st, placing the mining and energy sector at the center of fiscal controversy for the second time in four years.
Read moreThe President's Legal Secretary had several decrees in process on July 17th accepting senior official resignations, El Tiempo's Investigative Unit reported, as the outgoing Petro government entered its final three weeks.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Colombian Agricultural and Livestock Research Corporation (AGROSAVIA) have formalized a bilateral cooperation agreement with Thailand to develop bioenergy from agricultural and livestock waste.
Read moreEPM issued an urgent public alert, warning that intelligence received from multiple sources indicated possible blockade actions in the North and Northeast subregions of Antioquia that could prevent operating personnel from accessing five of its hydroelectric generation facilities.
Read moreThe financial deterioration of Air-e has accelerated well beyond the figures that have circulated publicly.
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Lazard's 2026 LCOE+ benchmark says renewables remain the cheapest new-build despite rising costs across all technologies.
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The Ministry of Mines and Energy used the final session of Colombia's National Risk Management Council on July 10th to deliver its most unambiguous public warning yet about the coming climate event: the approaching El Niño could be the most severe episode recorded in the last three decades.
Read moreTwo of Colombia's most prominent energy sector executives exited their roles in the week of July 14th, their departures overlapping with the broader institutional transition ahead of August 7th.
Read moreTwo El Tiempo investigations, eleven days apart, trace the arc of Colombia's hydroelectric maintenance crisis from internal CND recommendation to formal ministerial alert.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy hosted a five-day Regional Training Course on energy demand modelling organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Bogotá in early July, bringing together specialists and representatives from 13 Latin American and Caribbean member states.
Read morePresident Gustavo Petro requested and received the resignation of Mines and Energy Minister Edwin Palma on July 17th, placing ANH president Pablo Yesid Fajardo in temporary charge of the ministry with just over three weeks left in the government.
Read moreThe day after Abelardo de la Espriella's June 21 election victory, Colombia's energy and mining sector moved quickly from congratulating the incoming president to handing him the bill.
Read moreMayor Alejandro Char inaugurated Las Gardenias Community Energy Project on July 9 -- the first of its kind in Barranquilla, marking a locally led step into distributed solar generation in a city that has served as the symbolic center of Colombia's Caribbean electricity crisis.
Read moreMinister Edwin Palma sent a formal letter to the CREG expert commissioners on July 8th, publicly rebuking the regulator for failing to implement the eight regulatory measures it committed to delivering in May to protect the national interconnected system during El Niño.
Read moreColombia'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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Colombia's industrial sector is paying the second-highest electricity tariff in Latin America, according to data from Asoenergía, the association representing Colombia's large industrial energy consumers.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy has granted Colombia's first geothermal exploration permit under its new regulatory framework, authorizing a five-year program of subsurface investigation at El Barranquero, an area straddling the municipalities of Samaná in Caldas and Nariño in Antioquia.
Read moreAir-e Intervenida reported on July 8 that 106 people were captured for electricity theft across Atlántico, Magdalena, and La Guajira in the first half of 2026, as the result of 264 high-impact operations conducted jointly with the Attorney General's office and the National Police between January and June.
Read moreTwo earthquakes measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 that struck northern Venezuela in late June killed more than 3,800 people and caused widespread infrastructure damage -- but left the country's upstream oil production essentially unscathed.
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