Colombia presses to save power on blackout threat

OREANDA-NEWS. March 15, 2016. Colombia's energy ministry is encouraging electricity users to cut their consumption to avoid supply rationing.

"If we don't save between 5pc and 10pc over the next two weeks, there will be some scheduled blackouts," Colombia's interim energy minister Maria Lorena Gutirrez said today.

Gut?errez replaced Tom?s Gonz?lez who resigned yesterday amid a threat of blackouts following a fire that crippled the 560MW Guatap hydroelectric plant and two downstream hydro plants that depend on it.

Supply was already strained because of a severe El Nino-induced drought and a shortage of natural gas that forces most thermal power generators to use more costly and less efficient diesel.

Bogot? is struggling to cover around 10.2GW of electricity demand as El Ni?o starts to wind down. To fend off power cuts, Colombia has boosted imports from Ecuador to 7GWh.

Guti?rrez said today that Guatap operator Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) is installing a pump to open its reservoir to supply EPM's 204MW Playas and Isagen's 1.24GW San Carlos hydro plants. Because the two plants depend on Guatap? water flows, they were also knocked off line by the 15 February fire.

The pump should be operational by next week, Gutirrez said.

Colombia thermal fleet is under pressure as well. Medellin-based Celsia is working to restore full capacity at 610MW TermoFlores by the end of March after reporting a damaged turbine on 29 February that lowered capacity to 380MW.

In November 2015, Colombia public services regulator took over and restarted the 314MW TermoCandelaria plant after the plant?s owners, led by Chilean private equity fund SCL Energia Activa, shut it down on chronic financial losses tied to diesel-based operations and a regulatory cap on revenue.

A group of thermal generators plans to start importing LNG around the end of 2016 through a new regasification terminal near Cartagena.