Colombia. In Colombia, the first auction of unconventional sources of renewable energy carried out by the National Government through the Energy Mining Planning Unit, UPME, an entity attached to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, became the first auction.
As a result of this mechanism, generation responsibilities were assigned to eight awarded projects with a total effective capacity of 1,298 megawatts of installed capacity, 5 of them wind and 3 solar. In the process, 7 generating companies and 22 marketers were allocated.
"The results of the auction mark an energy milestone for the country. This is the beginning of a revolution because it allows us to diversify our electricity matrix, which is very clean because 70% comes from water sources but at the same time makes us vulnerable to climate variability and moments of scarcity such as the El Niño Phenomenon. Now we will be able to combine these sources of generation and complement them with energy from the sun and wind. In this way, we will have an increasingly clean, resilient and responsible matrix with the environment, "explained the Minister of Energy, María Fernanda Suárez.
The auction closed with a weighted average allocation price of $95.65 kilowatt hour, about $50 pesos below the current average cost of generation in bilateral contracts. In the course of the award process, the Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission established the price of $200/kWh as the individual maximum limit and the average maximum price of $160/kWh.
The target demand determined by the Ministry of Mines and Energy was 12,050.5 MWh-day. The total energy allocated was 10,186 MWh-day.
After the award process, the UPME verified that in accordance with Article 5 of Resolution MME 40725 of 2019, there is a positive difference between the target demand and the amount of energy allocated of 1,864.5 MWh-day, and a maximum sale offer price of $110/kWh is foreseen.
Therefore, the complementary mechanism is activated, whose award process will be carried out on October 23, 2019, also using the maximum ceilings established by the CREG.
The Auction of Long-Term Energy Contracts No. 02-2019 counted, in total, with the participation of 20 generators and 23 qualified marketers, that is, those who met all the prequalification requirements established for said mechanism.
Source: Ministry of Mines and Energy.
