By : Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, July 20, 2022
The Energy Mining Planning Unit (UPME) held the sixth day of socialization of the new connection request procedure, within the framework of Resolution 075.
There, the entity’s technicians explained that 7,977.33 MW of generation have already been released since the application of this scheme, but that the number could be increased to 8,440 total MW to be released during the normalization stage, plus another 2,249 total MW to be released during the of implementation.
In short, once the process is complete, there could be an expected release of some 10,689 MW available to be used by new projects.
On the other hand, Christian Jaramillo Herrera, General Director of UPME, confided that there are 5,712 MW in undertakings with commitments (including exempt 075), and 9,610 MW without commitments, that in both cases their promoters have presented guarantees.
Of the 7,977.33 MW released, the UPME indicated that Santander is the Department with the highest capacity withdrawn: 1,089.7MW. Then, Antioquia follows with 1,026. And Córdoba closes the podium of the Departments that exceed the GW of release, with 1037.3 MW.
The department of César, with 699.8 MW released; and to Bolívar, with 679.8 MW. Meanwhile, La Guajira, as one of the departments with the largest wind and solar resource in Colombia, released 140 MW; but the allocation was one of the largest: 2,240 MW, only surpassed by Antioquia (2,944 MW) and Córdoba (2,606 MW).
According to UPME data, so far capacity has been assigned to projects for 17,705.79MW. This is a good volume considering that the entire electrical matrix of Colombia amounts to 17,806 MW.