An ANIF report cited by Valora Analitik on May 22 puts hard historical numbers behind what Colombia's electricity sector is bracing for: every significant El Niño event of the past two decades has produced sharp spikes in residential electricity bills, driven by the system's structural dependence on hydroelectric generation (around 62% of effective installed capacity) and the much higher cost of the thermal backup that fills the gap when reservoirs run low.
Read moreAn El Tiempo investigation by Laura Lesmes Díaz offers the most comprehensive reconstruction to date of how Air-e arrived at its current crisis -- and makes a pointed argument that the distributor's collapse is not simply a legacy of private mismanagement but was significantly accelerated by the state's own handling of the intervention.
Read moreTwo opinion columns published in El Heraldo days apart arrive at the same place from opposite directions -- and together map the central contradiction of Colombia's Caribbean energy situation with unusual clarity.
Read moreWith El Niño already in a probability of 96% by year-end, Barranquilla's district administration has launched a two-track response combining immediate household demand-management guidance with longer-term urban climate adaptation investments.
Read moreWith climate models now placing the probability of a strong or very strong El Niño closing out 2026 at 96%, Colombia's association of capital cities, Asocapitales, has launched a coordinated national preparedness initiative that brings together the national disaster risk management agency (UNGRD), IDEAM, the Colombian Red Cross, and several ministries.
Read moreJuan Ricardo Ortega, CEO of Grupo Energía Bogotá (GEB), gave one of the most candid public assessments to date of Colombia's electricity and gas supply outlook in an interview covering El Niño preparedness, gas pricing dysfunction, reservoir management, the state of GEB's transmission projects, and the political environment surrounding the sector.
Read moreThe municipality of Galapa, in Atlántico department, has been subject to rolling power cuts for several weeks caused by overloading of the circuit serving the town, triggering community protests and blockades on the Cordialidad highway.
Read moreA May 13 commentary by IEA analysts Laura Cozzi, Marina Petrelli, and Arthur Roge documents how the 2026 Middle East conflict has produced an energy crisis with a dimension absent from previous shocks: the disruption of cooking fuel supplies for billions of people in emerging and developing economies, with consequences that extend from household food security to long-term clean energy transitions.
Read moreAtlas Renewable Energy is the latest international solar developer to join what El Tiempo calls Colombia's "1,000 MW club" -- a cohort of investors with announced targets at or above the gigawatt threshold.
Read moreThe Región Administrativa y de Planificación del Caribe (RAP Caribe) used its third Caribbean Energy Roundtable held in Barranquilla, to consolidate five months of technical work into a 49-measure action plan aimed squarely at the next national government.
Read moreColombia's Inspector General used a June 1 Asocapitales meeting on El Niño preparedness to deliver a pointed institutional message: the approaching climatic phenomenon cannot be managed as a water supply problem alone.
Read moreColombia's Comptroller General has issued a formal preventive fiscal control warning against the Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios (Superservicios), its Fondo Empresarial, and the intervened Caribbean distributor Air-e, producing what is arguably the most damning institutional indictment of the intervention since it began in September 2024.
Read moreWith the June 21 presidential runoff looming, Colombia's energy sector is watching the electoral cycle with unusual intensity. Not because either candidate's platform is unclear, but because analysts say the first hundred days of the new administration will send market signals that reverberate for years.
Read moreThe Air-e crisis has crossed into international arbitration. On April 27, 2026, Termocandelaria -- parent company of two of Colombia's largest thermoelectric plants, Termocandelaria and Termobarranquilla -- filed a claim against the Colombian state before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the World Bank's investment arbitration body.
Read moreGalapa, a municipality in Atlántico department, has become the first town in the department to face open, acknowledged electricity rationing by the government-intervened distributor Air-e and the editorial board of El Heraldo is not mincing words about what comes next.
Read moreRooftop solar is moving from environmental statement to household economics in Colombia, driven by a combination of falling equipment costs, grid-connected net metering rules, and a government program -- Colombia Solar -- explicitly designed to bring photovoltaic systems within reach of lower-income households.
Read moreThe Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos presented results from its 2024--2025 research program at the 5th International Natural Hydrogen Congress in May, confirming what the agency described as a significant step forward in understanding Colombia's geological potential for natural -- or "white" -- hydrogen.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Environment issued a circular to all autonomous regional corporations, urban environmental authorities, and local governments on May 28, setting out ten operational directives for managing the El Niño phenomenon expected to consolidate in the second half of 2026 and potentially extend into early 2027.
Read moreJuan Ricardo Ortega, president of Grupo Energía Bogotá, told W Radio's 6AM program on May 28 that electricity tariffs in Colombia face an upward trajectory over the coming months, driven by three interlocking cost pressures that are coinciding at a moment of unusual vulnerability for the national energy system.
Read moreWhen the Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos intervened Air-e in September 2024, the Caribbean distributor's debt stood at approximately CoP$530B. By April 30, 2026 -- twenty months and five administrators later -- it had reached CoP$2.3T, an increase of more than 350%.
Read more
Colombia's thermal generation sector has been burning significantly more fuel since mid-May, with XM data showing coal consumption at thermal plants rising 47.9% between January and May 2026 -- from 132.7 to 196.3 GBTUd -- and gas consumption rising 65.1%, from 122.2 to 201.7 GBTUd.
Read moreNencol 5, the 2,240 MWp gas-fired thermal plant awarded a firm energy obligation in the May 22 reliability charge auction, is nominally the most consequential single result of that process -- representing 55% of the 4,069.7 MWp of new capacity assigned and 4.5% of all firm energy committed. However, El Tiempo's investigation into the project and the man behind it raises serious doubts about whether any of that will materialize.
Read moreThe Consejo Gremial Nacional issued an urgent public appeal on May 29 to the government, the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and CREG to act immediately on what it described as a real and imminent risk of both electricity and gas supply failure. Industry sources speaking anonymously to Portafolio were starker still: "we need a miracle to save ourselves from the blackout."
Read more
With El Niño rapidly approaching, planners are naturally concerned with the expected drop off in hydrogeneration and what they can use to replace it. Traditionally, it would be thermogeneration but, if the “Illuminati” still run the show after August 7th, they will want to use solar. We update our solar-related charts with five full months of 2026 in the books.
Read moreSimón Gaviria, writing in El Heraldo, argues that Colombia's energy debate is stuck in the wrong century.
Read moreThe Petro administration issued Decree 0526 on May 21, amending Decree 1073 of 2015 and fundamentally broadening the mandate of the Fondo de Energía Social (FOES) -- the fund that has historically financed electricity bill discounts for stratum 1 and 2 households.
Read moreColombia's 23 monitored hydroelectric reservoirs closed May at 66.38% of capacity -- a 2.35 percentage-point improvement over April's 64.03% but still well short of the 80% analysts consider the minimum safe level for withstanding a prolonged dry period.
Read morePromigas closed the acquisition of 100% of Zelestra Latam on May 28, adding a three-country renewable energy platform to its historically gas-focused portfolio and entering Chile as a new market for the first time.
Read more
The expected candidates made it through to the second round and official government candidate Iván Cepeda got the approximately 40% of the vote that the polls said he would. But Abelardo de la Espriella surprised by getting over 43% and coming first.
Read moreThe Petro administration declared the May 22 reliability charge auction a resounding success, claiming it exceeded projected demand by 8%. Industry analysts, the power generators industry association Andeg, and the auction's most controversial winner all spent the following week telling a different story.
Read moreAlejandro Castañeda, president of the power generators industry association Andeg, declared on May 27 that Colombia faces a high probability of a blackout in March and April of next year, the product of three simultaneous failures: an undersized reliability charge auction, the financial collapse of Caribbean distributor Air-e, and the approaching El Niño phenomenon.
Read moreColombia's National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA) issued a public clarification on May 28 pushing back against media reports that implied the Hidroituango hydroelectric project required new regulatory approvals to raise its reservoir to 420 meters above sea level.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy has presented its institutional and regulatory roadmap for the potential incorporation of nuclear energy into the national power mix, doing so before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on May 25.
Read moreBia Energy, a Colombian energy technology and commercialization company, billed more than US$135m in 2025 and now operates across more than 270 cities nationwide
Read moreColombia's cement and concrete industry is navigating a convergence of energy-cost pressures, gas supply uncertainty, and growing international decarbonization requirements that together are redefining the economics of one of the country's most infrastructure-critical sectors.
Read morePresident Gustavo Petro's flagship infrastructure promise -- an interoceanic railway linking Colombia's Atlantic and Pacific coasts -- cleared a modest procedural milestone last week when the Transport Ministry announced the completion of pre-feasibility studies, the first formal stage in any infrastructure project.
Read moreThe economic price tag on a potential rationing scenario is the most important thing El País's May 25 expert survey adds to a story we have already well documented elsewhere, including today.
Read moreAndesco, Colombia's public utilities industry body, issued its starkest public warning to date on May 21, laying out five interconnected risk factors it says could drive the country into electricity rationing -- and giving the government a three-to-four month window to act before the dry season becomes unmanageable.
Read moreColombia faces an imminent risk of electricity rationing and sharp tariff increases as El Niño bears down on a power system weakened by four years of poor decisions.
Read moreColombia enters its May 31 presidential first round with four polling firms pointing in the same general direction – Iván Cepeda first, Abelardo de la Espriella second, Paloma Valencia third – but diverging so sharply on margins that they imply fundamentally different results.
Read more
Energy services platform Klik has published an analysis warning that Colombia's electricity grid faces a compounded stress test in the second half of 2026: the coincidence of El Niño, a structural firm-energy deficit, and the surge in demand that accompanies every Colombia match at the World Cup.
Read moreEcopetrol has completed the acquisition of a 49% interest in the JK1 and JK2 wind projects in La Guajira, the first two of six projects comprising the Jemeiwaa Ka'I wind cluster being developed in partnership with AES Colombia.
Read moreThe CREG's 2029-2030 firm energy obligation auction – the result that secured 4,069 MW and CoP$16T in investment – has a pronounced regional dimension that received little attention in national coverage.
Read morePresident Gustavo Petro escalated Colombia's official response to the approaching El Niño on May 22, announcing a package of energy and food security measures via his X account and warning that constitutional tools remain on the table if normal administrative channels prove too slow.
Read moreColombia's electricity system regulator CREG closed its latest expansion auction on May 22--23, securing 4,069.7 MW of firm energy capacity and 15 new generation projects for the December 2029--November 2030 obligation period, with total committed investment exceeding CoP$16T.
Read moreEnergy minister Edwin Palma used an appearance at a major forum on labor conditions in the mining and energy sector to issue his sharpest public warning yet about El Niño's impact on Colombia, while simultaneously reframing the government's energy transition agenda as the only credible response to the country's deepening climate and supply vulnerability.
Read moreThe Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development has granted conditional environmental clearance for the exploration phase of the Nereidas geothermal project, located in the Macizo Volcánico del Ruiz in Caldas department.
Read moreThree industry voices converged in the third week of May to paint a consistent and sobering picture of Colombia's energy exposure as El Niño approaches: the sector is entering the dry season with a negative firm-energy balance, insufficient gas, a crippled Caribbean distributor, and a new generation pipeline that has chronically underdelivered.
Read more
Colombia has crossed 24,447 registered rooftop solar and distributed generation systems, according to UPME data published through the Plan 6GW+ tracking program, with more than 15,000 of those installations coming in just the past two years.
Read moreCannabis Medical Company has commissioned Colombia's first solar farm dedicated to medicinal cannabis production, a 147-panel photovoltaic system generating 105.1 kWp at its facility in Baranoa, Atlántico.
Read moreEnergy Minister Edwin Palma has sent a formal circular to the Comisión de Regulación de Energía y Gas (CREG) acknowledging what he calls an "imminent risk" of electricity rationing across Colombia -- a significant reversal from his own public statements made just days earlier, when he told an audience in Atlántico that a blackout was not going to happen.
Read moreMateo Porras, is general manager of Julia RD, a Colombian demand response aggregator, which helps industrial and commercial users convert from passive electricity consumers into active contributors to grid stability but, in his view, Colombia still lacks the regulatory framework to do this at scale.
Read moreColombia's energy crisis -- and the Caribbean region's electricity emergency in particular -- took center stage at the Gran Vice Presidential Debate held May 5 at the Universidad Simón Bolívar's Teatro José Consuegra Higgins in Barranquilla, co-organized by Canal 1, Acento Colombia, and El Heraldo.
Read moreMinister of Mines and Energy Edwin Palma put concrete figures behind the government's La Guajira renewable energy push, disclosing that approximately CoP$360B has been directed to community energy projects in the department -- resources he described as enabling Wayúu families to access electricity, refrigeration, and connectivity for the first time.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy has activated a preparedness roadmap containing 50 specific actions to protect the electricity and gas systems ahead of El Niño 2026--2027, presenting the plan during a session of the Advisory Commission on Energy Situation Monitoring (Cacsse) on May 12.
Read more
Several articles recently have noted the coming El Niño, perhaps “Super” El Niño and the need to ensure the hydro reservoirs are at their highest possible level.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy has issued a resolution formalizing what it calls a tripartite governance model for renewable energy and transmission projects in La Guajira -- a permanent dialogue mechanism bringing together indigenous and local communities, project developers, and the state to negotiate and construct agreements around strategic energy initiatives in the Caribbean region.
Read moreMinister of Mines and Energy Edwin Palma traveled to the Villas de San Pablo neighborhood in Barranquilla on May 14 to review progress on the Colombia Solar program at the Parques de Bolívar 2 residential complex, meeting with community leaders and beneficiary families in one of the program's first operational deployments.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy has published a draft resolution establishing the regulatory framework for the exploration, evaluation, and exploitation of white hydrogen in Colombia, along with associated gases.
Read moreWith El Niño conditions expected in the second half of 2026, the Ministry of Mines and Energy has issued Circular 40021 of 2026, directing all entities of the executive branch to establish measurable energy-saving targets, adopt clean energy where possible, and conduct periodic compliance evaluations.
Read more
The Windpeshi wind farm in La Guajira has become one of Colombia's most expensive renewable energy cautionary tales. Originally conceived to generate around 1,006 GWh per year from 41 turbines across the municipalities of Uribia and Maicao, the project burned through more than CoP$1T under its original owner, Enel Colombia, without producing a single kilowatt of commercial energy.
Read moreISA is convening the 11th edition of its Knowledge and Innovation Forum in Medellín over five days, gathering professionals from Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Panama alongside roughly 30 global experts.
Read moreGrupo EPM used a virtual forum on the future of Colombia's public services sector to table two headline proposals: a "National Reliability Pact 2026--2030" to fast-track energy projects capable of delivering firm or flexible power before 2027, and a "National Policy of Equity and Territorial Convergence" specifically designed to address the Caribbean region's structural electricity deficit.
Read moreColombia's Constitutional Court is reviewing Decree 150 of 2026, President Gustavo Petro's declaration of economic emergency across eight Caribbean and Pacific departments following floods that struck at the start of the year, displacing around 160,000 people across 101 municipalities in Córdoba, Sucre, Antioquia, and Chocó.
Read moreColombia's Ministry of Mines and Energy published a draft resolution for public comment on May 7 proposing changes to the policy governing capacity allocation on the National Power Grid (Sistema Interconectado Nacional or SIN) – a measure framed by Minister Edwin Palma as aimed at freeing up connection slots occupied by stalled projects so that new generation, including clean energy and storage, can move faster.
Read moreColombia's only LNG import terminal, the Cartagena regasification plant, is scheduled to go offline for five days of preventive maintenance from July 30 to August 3, 2026 – deliberately brought forward from its customary October / November slot to ensure the infrastructure is fully available during the most demanding phase of the El Niño weather phenomenon forecast for the second half of the year.
Read moreWith Colombia's FDI down 16% in 2025 to US$11.5B -- and 33% over four years -- the May 31 first-round election has intensified scrutiny of what each leading candidate would actually mean for foreign investment.
Read moreColombia's Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios (Superservicios) announced on May 4 that Superintendent Felipe Durán Carrón would lead an in-person inspection and surveillance visit to Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), covering the full range of services the multi-utility provides: water supply, sewage, energy, and gas.
Read moreGrupo Ecopetrol inaugurated on May 4 what it is calling its "energy brain" -- the Centro Autónomo de Despacho de Energía (CADE), an AI-driven intelligent energy management system developed in partnership with ISA that allows the group to select in real time the most efficient combination of self-generated power, renewables, and grid purchases from the Sistema Interconectado Nacional.
Read moreColombia's central bank is sounding a clear warning about the inflationary consequences of an El Niño event that forecasters expect to arrive in the second half of 2026, intensifying toward a peak in September and potentially setting temperature records.
Read moreColombia's foreign investment shortfall -- FDI down 16% in 2025 to US$11.5B and off 33% over four years -- is partly explained by a problem that never appears on a tax bill.
Read moreWhoever takes office on August 7 inherits an electricity sector in apparent crisis -- a gas shortage driving thermal generators toward dirtier combustion, a Caribbean coast distributor on the brink of financial collapse, an ambitious renewable project pipeline that cannot find commercial closure, and a fiscal hole that makes all of the above harder to fix.
Read more
A country that was still debating the viability of electric vehicles just a few years ago has handed the Tesla Model Y its second consecutive monthly sales crown -- a milestone that says as much about consumer preferences as it does about energy transition.
Read moreFrench renewable energy company GreenYellow commissioned the Parque Solar Jardín, located in Valencia de Jesús, Cesar, adding solar capacity to one of the Colombian regions with the highest renewable potential.
Read moreMaría Nohemí Arboleda, general manager of XM – the ISA subsidiary that operates Colombia's electricity market and dispatch system – has given a wide-ranging interview to Valora Analitik that touches on three of the sector's most sensitive current threads: the unresolved legal dispute over a failed Siemens software contract, the growing role of solar generation, and the system's preparedness for a possible Super El Niño later in 2026.
Read moreISA, the electricity transmission company controlled by Ecopetrol, has appointed Olga Patricia Castaño as interim CEO – the second acting president to hold the role since the Consejo de Estado annulled the appointment of Jorge Carrillo earlier this year.
Read more
Grupo EPM closed 2025 with consolidated revenues of CoP$40.6T, EBITDA of CoP$11T, and net profit of CoP$5.3T -- a 9% increase on 2024 -- despite what the company described as a year marked by regulatory pressures, climate variability, and higher operating costs.
Read moreIn an Valora Analitik interview, Terpel CEO Óscar Bravo spelled out how Colombia's largest fuel network plans to reposition itself as an integrated mobility and energy company by 2035, with electric vehicle charging at the center of that transformation.
Read moreColombia's Constitutional Court has unanimously overturned Legislative Decree 44 of January 21, 2026, the emergency measure through which the Petro government imposed a parafiscal levy on electricity generators as part of the economic and social emergency it had declared.
Read moreAfinia, the Grupo EPM subsidiary serving much of Colombia's Caribbean coast, has invested more than CoP$1.3T in electrical infrastructure across the department of Bolívar -- and has little to show for it in the south of the department, where theft, non-payment, and community hostility are erasing the benefits.
Read moreGrid operator XM has circulated an internal report, obtained by El Tiempo, laying out a detailed set of technical requirements for Colombia to navigate an anticipated strong El Niño event expected to develop toward the end of 2026 – a scenario the document warns could push the system "to operating levels that have never been seen before" and place reliable demand coverage at risk.
Read moreThree of Colombia's main electricity industry associations and the market manager have issued coordinated warnings about the structural fragility of the national grid as the probability of a strong El Niño phenomenon in the second half of 2026 rises – adding a climatic stress test to a system that analysts say is already operating with insufficient margin.
Read moreAs the first Conference for the Transition Beyond Fossil Fuels concluded its high-level segment in Santa Marta, Oxfam used the occasion to press a point that the event's corporate-heavy framing tends to obscure: that phasing out fossil fuels without recognizing community-scale energy alternatives risks replicating the same extractive power structures under a green label.
Read moreGeothermal energy – power generated from heat stored in the earth's subsurface – is emerging as a priority renewable source within the Petro administration's energy transition agenda, though Colombia remains at an early stage of development despite significant estimated potential.
Read moreThe April 24 summit between Colombia's Gustavo Petro and Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodríguez produced more than political declarations: on April 28.
Read moreEnergy Minister Edwin Palma has moved from hinting at Air-e's liquidation to stating it openly, declaring that "Air-e, in my judgment, should be liquidated -- the operation should be taken over by a subsidiary of Gecelca."
Read moreBMW dealer and mobility services provider Autogermana has inaugurated a new electric vehicle charging station in Villa de Leyva, one of Colombia's most visited colonial heritage destinations, adding the Boyacá tourist hub to a growing national network.
Read moreWith Colombia's first-round presidential election 25 days away on May 31, the energy sector is watching the race as closely as any constituency -- and with good reason. The outcome will determine whether Colombia resumes oil and gas exploration, how the country manages the Caribbean coast electricity crisis, and whether the energy transition accelerates or stalls.
Read moreWith Colombia's presidential election six weeks away, voices from the Caribbean coast are using the transition period to press whoever wins on the region's chronic electricity problems.
Read moreFour months before leaving office, President Gustavo Petro's flagship energy transition program is delivering real benefits to individual beneficiaries but falling well short of the structural overhaul its rhetoric promised -- a gap that analysts say reflects both the limits of the initiatives themselves and Colombia's stubborn fiscal dependence on hydrocarbons.
Read moreJavier Ricardo Ruiz, general manager of Hitachi Energy Colombia, says Colombia's electricity system is under growing structural strain, combining rising demand, chronic project delays, and a dangerous over-reliance on hydropower -- a vulnerability that El Niño will sharpen into a crisis if left unaddressed.
Read moreColombia's electricity users face a two-track tariff threat in the second half of 2026: the anticipated arrival of El Niño, which will shift generation toward costlier thermal fuels, and a government-mandated surcharge designed to bail out debt-laden Caribbean distributor Air-e.
Read moreThe president of Promigás, Juan Manuel Rojas, used the opening session of the Cátedra Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo lecture series at the Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería Julio Garavito to issue a pointed warning about Colombia's energy security ahead of a probable El Niño in the second half of 2026.
Read moreMinister of Mines and Energy Edwin Palma used an appearance at the ninth Encuentro y Feria de Renovables Latam, held at the Centro de Eventos Puerta de Oro in Barranquilla, to issue an unusually candid assessment of Colombia's energy security outlook, describing the convergence of climate risk and global geopolitical disruption as "quite a difficult cocktail."
Read moreColombia's Attorney General's Office is preparing to bring criminal charges against three senior engineers involved in the construction and oversight of the Hidroituango hydroelectric project, accusing them of causing an environmental catastrophe during the 2018 emergency that nearly destroyed the dam.
Read moreGrupo Energía Bogotá (GEB) announced on April 20 that it has begun exploratory activities toward a potential listing of American Depositary Shares (ADSs) on a U.S. stock exchange and a corresponding registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Read more
Colombia's electricity demand rose 5.67% year-on-year in March 2026, reaching 7,461.77 GWh against 7,051.48 GWh in March 2025, according to market operator XM. For the full first quarter, demand also expanded, climbing from 20,305.1 GWh in Q1 2025 to 21,210.9 GWh in Q1 2026.
Read moreWith El Niño expected in Colombia's second half of 2026, the Caribbean region has become the country's principal hope for securing energy supply – representing 54% of national renewable generation projects and contributing more than 50% of the 4,441 MW of solar capacity assigned under the reliability charge mechanism for 2027–2028.
Read moreColombia's energy regulator CREG published draft Resolution 701 122 of 2026 for public comment on April 10, proposing a significant upgrade to the Sistema Centralizado de Información de Convocatorias Públicas (SICEP), the platform through which approximately half of all energy purchased in Colombia is contracted via public tender.
Read moreColombia's electric vehicle market grew 171.3% in the first quarter of 2026, with more than 9,000 new registrations between January and March, according to figures from the ANDI and Fenalco. Against that backdrop, the energy regulator CREG convened a multi-ministry coordination roundtable to begin developing a coherent regulatory and technical roadmap for electric mobility's integration into the national energy system.
Read more