Facing a fiscal deficit CARF projects could reach 10% of GDP by the close of 2027 and net debt around 67.3% of GDP, former Finance Minister Mauricio Cárdenas told Blu Radio that selling Ecopetrol's majority stake in ISA to Colombia's pension funds would be a smart move.
Read moreColombia's biofuels sector avoided an estimated 15.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and roughly 3,400 tons of particulate matter between 2022 and 2026.
Read moreCamilo Sánchez, president of Andesco, laid out a stark picture of Colombia's supply-demand imbalance heading into the peak of El Niño.
Read moreColombia's gas-import lifeline came under direct strain this week when a mechanical failure forced SPEC LNG's floating regasification unit in Cartagena to cut capacity from 475 to 400 mmcfd, just hours after authorities had flagged the risk of running the plant too hard.
Read moreVice President José Manuel Restrepo acknowledged at Acolgen's 18th Annual Energy Congress that Colombia's electricity system faces a complex situation, inherited as a blackout risk from the prior administration.
Read moreAcolgen president Natalia Gutiérrez told the association's Annual Energy Congress that Colombia faces two distinct problems: "we have a short-term need. A structural problem."
Read moreCiti analyst Johanna Chua said equatorial Pacific warming has crossed the threshold defining the most intense El Niño episodes on record, with sea-surface anomalies near 3°C through September 14th.
Read moreAndeg president Alejandro Castañeda endorsed CREG's energy-savings program but called for adjustments accounting for the Caribbean's heat.
Read moreVice President José Manuel Restrepo told Bogotá's Acolgen Congress that only 1.9% of expected new generation capacity came online in 2025 -- the fifth consecutive year of that shortfall -- directly tying Colombia's stalled electricity buildout to its broader economic ambitions.
Read moreIsagen president Camilo Marulanda told Valora Analitik at Acolgen's congress that the company is advancing nearly 800 MW of solar projects across the country, alongside large-scale battery storage, aiming to add 1,000 MW of new capacity by 2027. They are even on track to hit or slightly exceed that target.
Read moreColombia's biofuels sector is expanding production capacity through roughly US$110 million in new investment from three companies – BioD, Bioenergy, and Oleoflores – while simultaneously advancing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and maritime decarbonization.
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We’ve written a lot lately about the Caribbean coast’s resistance to the CREG’s tariff plan, designed to encourage more frugal use of electricity during El Niño. We thought we’d look at some of the numbers.
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Citi says the Pacific has crossed the threshold defining the most intense El Niño episodes on record, with equatorial sea-surface anomalies near 3°C as of September 14th,levels that put the region "firmly in Súper El Niño territory," per analyst Johanna Chua.
Read moreColombia's electricity regulators are preparing three sequential energy auctions to strengthen system capacity and close the projected gap between supply and demand.
Read moreAES Colombia general manager Federico Echavarría detailed the company's Jemeiwaa Ka'l wind cluster in La Guajira, a joint venture with Ecopetrol (51% AES, 49% Ecopetrol) targeting over 1,000 MW in total capacity, roughly 5% of Colombia's installed capacity.
Read moreColombia's firm-energy deficit – projected at 7.76% of demand for 2026-2027 – combined with severely delayed generation expansion (just 1,027 of the 4,475 MW expected for 2026 had entered operation as of September 10, only 23% of target) is reviving comparisons to 1992's year-long blackout, which forced a complete restructuring of the electricity sector.
Read moreVice President José Manuel Restrepo outlined the government's growth strategy at the 18th Annual Energy Congress, arguing Colombia's anemic private investment – at its lowest share of GDP in 51 years – makes 6% growth impossible without urgent reform.
Read moreTesla owners in Colombia learned via social media that starting September 30th, continuing to access premium connectivity features – real-time traffic, satellite maps, an internet browser, karaoke – will require a CoP$69,900 monthly subscription.
Read moreAfinia enabled a new tool on its website letting households, businesses, and companies across the Colombian Caribbean check their daily electricity consumption, aimed at promoting efficient-use habits during the high temperatures associated with El Niño.
Read moreA fire at the San Mateo electrical substation in Cúcuta left approximately 135,000 users without power for more than three hours on the night of September 16th.
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Battery Electric Vehicles fell for the fifth straight month this year and Tesla had its second worst sales month since February, but Tesla Y was still the best selling brand electric or conventional.
Read moreColombia enters this El Niño with less water reaching reservoirs than in 2015-2016 or 2023-2024: since June, rivers have delivered only three of every four liters of normal inflow, while IDEAM puts the odds at 81% that the event crosses the threshold for a "very strong" Niño.
Read moreXM, Colombia's grid operator and an ISA subsidiary, warned in its latest bulletin that the gap between the system's firm (secure) energy and projected demand will reach 7.76% for 2026-2027 and remain at 7.6% for 2027-2028, up sharply from 5.43% in 2025-2026.
Read moreXM's interim general manager Juan Carlos Morales revealed at the utility's Eighth Forum in Cartagena that the August 10 earthquake pushed the National Grid (Sistema Interconectado Nacional) far closer to a full collapse than previously disclosed.
Read moreCREG's Resolución 101 120 (later amended by Resolución 101 126), in effect since September 1, sets an individual monthly consumption target for each regulated user based on their trailing 12-month average. Users who cut consumption more than 10% below that target earn a bill credit; those who exceed it by more than 10% pay a surcharge, only on the excess consumption, not the whole bill, scaled at 30% for strata 1-3, 50% for strata 4-6, and 70% for commercial and industrial users.
Read moreANIF projects a strong-to-very-strong El Niño could add roughly 0.70 percentage points (70 basis points) to Colombia's inflation, with a severe "Súper Niño" scenario potentially pushing total annual inflation as high as 7.3%.
Read moreFollowing the August 10 earthquake, Colombia's energy sector deployed a technical response to strengthen electrical backup at two Quibdó hospitals, led by Minister María Nohemí Arboleda.
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El Niño is here. The lead graph shows the amount of water flowing into Colombia’s hydroelectric dams and it doesn’t take sophisticated statistical analysis (or ChatGPT) to realize that inflows are in decline and have been since probably March.
Read moreElectric mobility has shifted from a purely environmental conversation to one about costs, competitiveness, and business development, according to discussion at E-Conecta, Colombia's electromobility and competitiveness summit held this week in Bogotá.
Read moreResearchers at Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL) selected the Coffee Region as the site for a study examining whether small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) could feasibly join Colombia's power system, using simulations and computational models to assess the technology's potential in the region.
Read moreCREG director Adriana Jiménez told the Senate's Fifth Commission that the agency is moving to modernize the Reliability Charge, the mechanism ensuring Colombia always has sufficient firm energy, particularly during critical periods like El Niño, after more than 20 years under the current model.
Read moreThe Ministries of Finance and Mines and Energy will present an urgent-message bill to Congress seeking CoP$1.2T to sustain liquidity measures for the electricity sector through El Niño, funded not through new 2026 spending but by reorganizing existing budget line items within the current General Budget.
Read morePresident Abelardo De la Espriella issued Decree 1373 de 2026, assigning Vice President José Manuel Restrepo a broad interinstitutional and intersectoral coordination role covering state modernization, education, strategic resources, energy security, economic growth, competitiveness, macroeconomic stability, and Colombia's international investment positioning.
Read moreEnvironment Minister Fabio Arjona detailed his ministry's measures to shore up the electricity system against El Niño during a September 9 congressional debate on the energy sector, the same session where Minister Arboleda warned tariffs must rise.
Read moreAir-e's intervention marks two years with the financial and administrative crisis deepened rather than resolved.
Read moreGrupo EPM's Innovation Management Model took first place in the national phase of the CIER Innovation Prizes 2026, in the Innovation Platform category, recognizing the group's organizational capacity to convert knowledge into solutions, develop new businesses, and respond to the energy sector's evolving challenges.
Read moreMinister of Mines and Energy María Nohemí Arboleda told Congress's Economic Commissions on September 9 that electricity tariffs must increase, pointing to falling hydroelectric output, greater thermal reliance, and rising gas costs as the drivers.
Read moreColombia's Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Mines and Energy announced two Memoranda of Understanding with the United States government, aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation on strategic minerals and nuclear energy.
Read moreEPM implemented internal water and energy-saving measures across its main headquarters, other company facilities, and its natural gas and electricity service stations, adjusting lighting, air conditioning, digital displays, escalators, and internal spaces.
Read moreA single ChatGPT query consumes roughly 0.34 watt-hours of electricity or "about what an oven uses in a little over a second," according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, plus 0.32 milliliters of water, or "about a fifteenth of a teaspoon."
Read moreDewhurst Group has been officially awarded the exploration permit for the Condor Paipa Geothermal Project in Paipa, Boyacá, formalizing the start of exploration and positioning Paipa as a strategic region for Colombia's geothermal development.
Read moreThe Comisión de Regulación de Energía y Gas (CREG) activated its reliability-sustainment mechanism under Resolución CREG 101 127 de 2026, following technical recommendations from XM's National Dispatch Center and the National Operations Council.
Read moreThe United Nations recognized Grupo Energía Bogotá (GEB) for its model of engagement with ethnic communities, including the group in its latest report on the right to development, under the section "Learning from good practices and sharing them."
Read moreAs Colombia heads into El Niño in earnest, a number of voices, especially former MinEnergia’s have called for an incentive program to promote the “right behaviors”: encourage those who use energy wisely and, frankly, punish those who waste it. Inevitably perhaps, the CREG’s plan provoked criticism from the Caribbean.
Read moreAndeg president Alejandro Castañeda said Colombia's firm-energy cushion has been fully consumed: the 2023-2024 El Niño was survived with a 2% firm-energy surplus, but the country now faces a 2.5% deficit heading into this Niño.
Read moreColombia's Agencia Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA) granted environmental approval for the transmission interconnection linking the Ariguaní photovoltaic park (200 MWac) to the La Loma 500kV substation, spanning the municipalities of El Paso and Chiriguaná in Cesar.
Read moreSenator Ana Paola García (La U) announced she'll formally summon the SuperServicios to the Senate's Sixth Committee to explain why intervened utility Air-e signed a modernization contract with Chinese company Nationals rather than focusing on lowering the high energy costs burdening Caribbean municipalities.
Read moreThe Ministry of Mines and Energy, through the Fondo de Energías No Convencionales y Gestión Eficiente de la Energía (FENOGE), completed installation of photovoltaic solar systems at Hospital Kennedy in Riofrío, marking the close of a program covering 10 public hospitals across Valle del Cauca.
Read moreVice President José Manuel Restrepo proposed developing new electricity generation capacity in Colombia's Alto Caribe corridor as a precondition for the country to compete for datacenter investment in Latin America, positioning energy as the third of five pillars in a growth agenda aiming for 6% annual economic expansion.
Read moreEcopetrol CFO Camilo Barco said the company has no active process underway to divest its stake in ISA and doesn't plan to in the short term, defending the transmission subsidiary's role within the group's long-term strategy.
Read moreThe Colectora transmission project, critical to connecting La Guajira's wind generation to the national grid, faces another delay after the Ministry of Interior certified 18 additional communities requiring prior consultation.
Read moreBogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán raised an alert about the capital's electricity supply amid El Niño, warning the city could face difficulty meeting rising consumption if infrastructure isn't upgraded soon.
Read moreEnergía Atenea's subsidiary Energua (Energía del Guatapurí) has taken over as the new electricity operator for 35 municipalities across Cesar, Magdalena, and southern Bolívar, serving roughly 365,000 customers in territory carved out of Afinia's former market.
Read moreISA and its affiliated companies put personnel, technical equipment, and capabilities toward Colombia's earthquake emergency response following the August 10 event.
Read moreCarolina Escobar, who has served as president of Fiduciaria Central, will take over leadership of Hidroituango, Colombia's flagship hydroelectric project.
Read moreAtlántico governor and RAP Caribe president Eduardo Verano told the Inspector General’s newly installed technical roundtable in Bogotá that Colombia's electricity crisis won't be solved with temporary measures, arguing instead for a fundamental review of sector regulation and how the energy chain is currently organized.
Read moreXM's interim general manager Juan Carlos Morales said Colombia's electricity system remains far from the conditions that produced the 1992 blackout, even as the sector faces real El Niño-driven challenges.
Read moreThe Inspector General’s office will formally investigate former Minister of Mines and Energy Edwin Palma and former Superintendent of Public Services Elmer Felipe Durán over their alleged roles in worsening the crisis at intervened utility Air-e.
Read moreFormer Attorney General Francisco Barbosa writes in El Heraldo that Air-e's crisis illustrates a distinct kind of supply risk: a "financial blackout" that doesn't require empty reservoirs to disrupt service.
Read moreIn today’s lead story, XM's interim general manager Juan Carlos Morales said Colombia's electricity system remains far from the conditions that produced the 1992 blackout, though he didn't explain what specifically makes today's system more resilient. He was direct, instead, that "current uncertainty exceeds recent years'
Read moreGrupo Energía Bogotá posted CoP$702,000 million in net income for Q2 2026, up 15% year-on-year, driven primarily by strength in Enel Colombia's generation business and disciplined financial management.
Read moreSergio Arturo Piñeros Botero was sworn in August 13 as director of the Agencia Nacional de Licencias Ambientales (ANLA), the agency responsible for licensing hydrocarbons, electricity, and other infrastructure projects nationwide, succeeding Irene Vélez Torres.
Read moreInspector General Gregorio Eljach Pacheco installed a permanent technical roundtable on "paz energética" at his office this week, bringing together the government, regional authorities, sector agents, and control bodies to move from diagnosing Colombia's energy crisis toward folding solutions into the new 2026-2030 National Development Plan.
Read moreThe Inspector General's office is investigating a contract Air-e signed with China National Machinery Exports and Imports Corporation to finance up to CoP$1T in electrical infrastructure work, adding fresh alarm to a sector already watching the utility's finances closely.
Read moreColombia has designated 998,576 hectares of rural land as Areas Protected for the Production of Food (APPA) as of July, created under the Petro government's Agriculture Ministry to safeguard land for food production and security.
Read moreEcopetrol's Econova innovation center, in partnership with subsidiary Hocol and La Guajira's Chamber of Commerce, launched five open-innovation challenges aimed at solving strategic problems in energy transition, electrical reliability, risk management, and digital transformation.
Read moreColombia's Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Mauricio Gómez Amín, reported progress strengthening economic ties with Japan following strategic meetings in Tokyo, part of a government push to attract investment across agroindustry, technology, automotive manufacturing, and the transition to a sustainable economy.
Read moreSpeaking at Asobancaria's Banking Convention in Cartagena, Inspector General Gregorio Eljach warned that municipal governments and public entities need to get current on their electricity debts to relieve pressure on the sector's finances, confirming his office has opened disciplinary investigations over unpaid utility bills.
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Colombia's electricity demand is projected to grow roughly 10% between 2026 and 2030, per UPME estimates cited at Andeg's 13th Energy Forum, straining a system already contending with delayed transmission projects.
Read moreAndeg president Alejandro Castañeda told the association's energy forum that despite tight physical supply and rising demand, the system's most immediate threat isn't a lack of energy but the financial state of the companies that generate it.
Read moreThe national government, through the Ministries of Finance and Mines and Energy, committed CoP$1.5T to Colombia's electricity sector under the newly named "Energy Plan NOW," aimed at protecting service continuity amid a payment-chain liquidity crisis affecting generators, transmitters, distributors, and commercializers.
Read moreFormer Minister Amylkar Acosta argues in this El Heraldo column that delays in building transmission lines and substations have stopped being a purely technical problem and become a direct cost passed to consumers – when the grid can't move power efficiently, the system falls back on more expensive generation, and that markup flows straight into household and business tariffs.
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XM's wholesale market manager Jaime Alejandro Zapata told Andeg's 13th Energy Forum in Barranquilla that UPME projects Sistema Interconectado Nacional demand growing roughly 10% between 2026 and 2030, pressuring both system supply and the transmission network.
Read moreXM interim general manager Juan Carlos Morales laid out the electricity system's core vulnerability heading into El Niño: expected peak demand could exceed 265 GWh on some days, against roughly 118 GWh of thermal firm-energy obligations and around 20 GWh of daily solar – leaving hydro to cover the remaining 120-140 GWh, with no assurance about how long the dry period will last.
Read moreDeputy Minister of Energy Armando José Cuello said technical teams across the Ministry of Mines and Energy, CREG, and the Environment and Finance ministries are reviewing every available option to keep Colombia's electricity system stable through El Niño, though he stopped short of saying blackout risk is fully off the table.
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For some time, I had wanted to look at CO2e emissions from energy over the past eight years. With malice aforethought, I wanted to show were higher – or at least the same – when the “Illuminati” were running the show than during the previous administration. See graph.
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Minister of Mines and Energy María Nohemí Arboleda's administration reported a fast pivot from diagnosis to action in its first ten days, centered on institutional coordination to stabilize energy supply and tighten control over public resources.
Read moreGrupo EPM's electricity marketing companies in Colombia will implement a transitional incentive program for efficient electricity use, created by the CREG through Resolución CREG 101120 de 2026, aimed at reducing regulated demand during periods of energy scarcity, low rainfall, and supply reliability risk.
Read moreAndeg president Alejandro Castañeda struck an optimistic tone on the sector's relationship with the incoming government ahead of the association's 13th Energy Forum in Barranquilla.
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Barranquilla's district government signed a joint declaration with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) validating progress on "Winds of Barranquilla," (Vientos de Barranquilla) which will become Colombia's first offshore wind farm, positioned in Caribbean waters off the city's coast.
Read moreCREG executive director Adriana Jiménez said the sector's central challenge is coordinating simultaneous technological transitions across generation, grids, storage, and end users into a sustainable, integrated system, rather than regulating each shift separately.
Read moreAquiles Mercado's El Heraldo column frames global energy security as newly central to IMF and World Bank discourse, arguing that geopolitical instability – chiefly the Iran conflict and Strait of Hormuz risk – has pushed capital toward resource-rich, conflict-distant regions like Latin America, with Colombia positioned to benefit given its energy, mineral, and food resources.
Read moreColombia's electricity sector is navigating one of its most critical stretches since the 1992 blackout – tight supply-demand margins, delayed generation and transmission projects, gas supply strain, generator debt, and subsidy payment delays – with intervened utility Air-e's financial collapse now widely described as a systemic risk rather than a regional problem.
Read moreColombia'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.
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