The El Niño Phenomenon began to hit our country, causing less water to generate the necessary electrical energy for Colombians, causing them to have to pay more expensive rates.
The United States Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that this climatic event, which will continue until the end of the year, is characterized by warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Given this complex situation, Irene Vélez, Minister of Mines and Energy, maintained that in the electricity market scheme in Colombia, when the most expensive energy generation technologies are used, there is an impact on the rate.
“We have a matrix in Colombia where 70 percent is hydraulic and 30 percent is thermal, under normal conditions, but when water becomes scarce, that is, the El Niño phenomenon, stress is generated that It leads to consuming more thermoelectric power”, said Vélez.
“Then the price configuration does indeed impact and that price of the thermoelectric plant depends on the type of energy it uses for generation, which can be coal, liquid and gas,” he added.
“Indeed, an impact is generated that derives from having to use thermoelectric plants. Yes, there will be an impact on the configuration of the price and, above all, there will be an impact on those markets that are more exposed on the stock market”, added Irene Vélez.
Regions where the price of energy will rise:
In the departments where the energy service rate would increase are Putumayo, Huila, Cauca, among others, according to the Minister.
What will be the most complex period of this phenomenon in our country?
The Vice Minister of Energy (e), Cristián Díaz, assured that the strongest period of this drought will be from December 2023 to March of next year.
In addition, Días explained that the reason for the increase in energy values is because one of the six components that are paid in the rate is ‘generation’, which has two subcomponents: long-term contracts and energy purchases on the stock market.
The contracts make it possible to buy a part of the energy that users consume at a fixed price for a period of time, and the electricity that is needed is bought daily in the energy market.
“Since the projects have not entered in recent years, we do not have enough energy available for contracts. If the price on the stock market rises due to the conditions of the El Niño phenomenon, part of this may be reflected in the rate increases”, explained Cristian Díaz.
He also reiterated that there is no risk of energy shortages in the country, since the energy scenarios that XM is doing show that “indeed, the system is prepared to even face a contingency scenario.”
This scenario refers to low hydrological conditions that prevent hydroelectric plants from operating at full capacity to generate the electricity that Colombians require.
130,000 cubic meters of natural gas arrive in the country:
Three shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived at the Cartagena Regasification Plant, purchased by the main thermal generators in the country as a provision to deal with the El Niño phenomenon in the second half of the year.
– May 15, the plant received a ship with about 16,000 cubic meters of LNG.
– On June 2, 43,800 cubic meters arrived.
– The previous week another ship arrived with 28,000 cubic meters.
– In the next few days, the regasifier will receive around 44,000 cubic meters of this energy source.
“Our customers are stocking up on natural gas to support electric power generation during the upcoming dry spell. The terminal is a key piece in the backup scheme that provides firmness and reliability to the Colombian electrical system and allows the thermal park to guarantee the supply of electrical energy, not only in scenarios such as El Niño but also in the face of other eventualities in the electrical system, he said. José María Castro, general manager of Spec LNG.
Data:
1. The Cartagena Regasification Plant has a storage capacity of 170,000 cubic meters of LNG and a regasification capacity available to its customers of 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.
2. Capacity that allows supporting close to 2,000 megawatts of electricity generation with natural gas, which represents 60 percent of the thermal capacity in Colombia.
3. The regasification terminal was vital in 2020, when the level of the reservoirs reached 30 percent, it regasified close to 13,000 million cubic feet of LNG for more than 200 days for the thermal plants and received 16 methane tankers throughout the year. anus.
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