Andrea Jaramill, Bloomberg News

BOGOTA
EnergiesNet.com 10 31 2024

Dry weather is forcing Colombia, which has one of the world’s most aggressive climate plans, to burn more fossil fuel. 

Colombia’s electrical system is vulnerable to drought because roughly two-thirds of the nation’s power comes from hydro. But after months of parched conditions, the Andean nation’s energy regulator last month called upon fossil fuel-powered plants to boost output in an effort to conserve shrinking water reservoirs. 

As a result, about 40% of the country’s electricity is coming from fossil fuels, well above the 25% average for this month over the past decade, according to data from Colombia’s power system operator XM SA. Of that, about two-thirds is from burning natural gas and most of the rest is from coal. 

That comes as President Gustavo Petro’s aspires to reduce Colombia’s reliance on fossil fuels. The leftist leader has made fighting climate change a priority, refusing to sign new drilling contracts even as the country faces a looming gas shortage. 

Arid weather has been so severe that Bogotá has been rationing water since April. In neighboring Ecuador, which is also highly dependent on hydropower, daily blackouts are crippling the economy.

Colombia’s water reservoirs are at 53% of capacity, compared to the 10-year average of 71% for October, according to data from XM. 

Although Colombia boasts one of the world’s cleanest grids, so-called thermal plants that burn fuels such as gas or coal are a key part of the network because they are invulnerable to most weather threats, said Daisy Cerquera, a former member of the Regulatory Commission of Energy and Gas, or CREG.

“Thermal generation, which doesn’t depend on whether it rains or not, provides the basis” for reliability in the country’s grid, she said. “Without the thermal plans, we wouldn’t have been able to make it” without blackouts.  

Bloomberg.com 10 30 2024