Enertis accompanies the construction of Celsia’s second photovoltaic plant in Colombia

Enertis has participated in more than 20 projects in several development and construction stages in Colombia, by providing its technical due diligence or engineering services to developers.

The cumulative expertise in the country already exceeds 600 MW.

Enertis strengthens its position in the Colombian market with the supervision of the construction of Celsia’s second photovoltaic plant of 8.06 MW in Bolivar.

Celsia, the energy division of Grupo Argos, already allocated Enertis the supervision of the construction of the solar plant  ‘Yumbo solar’, the first utility-scale solar PV facility in the country that has been connected to the grid, with more than 3,500 modules and a total energy production enough to supply 8,000 households.  After this collaboration, Enertis has been chosen again as Owner’s Engineer for the new plant that will be constructed in the department of Bolivar. The Bolivar solar plant is the second utility-scale project to be constructed by Celsia in the country and is part of its growth plan concerning the non-conventional renewable energy sector in Colombia.

Amongst the tasks to be performed by Enertis will be a review of the detailed engineering , the verification of material and stipulated equipment supplies for the plant as well as the supervision of electric, civil and health and security aspects during the construction and commissioning of the plant. Those activities are going to be carried out by a team of experts with different technical backgrounds who will take care of back office as well as on-site works, the latter in direct collaboration with personnel of Celsia with the final aim to share knowledge.

This project contributes to the growth and consolidation of Enertis in Colombia, after more than two years working in the country and opening a permanent office in 2017. So far, the team of Enertis in Colombia has participated in more than 20 different projects in several development and construction stages, such as technical due diligence processes or engineering services to developers in different areas throughout the country.  The expertise in Colombia already exceeds an accumulated power of 600 MW.

In the last years Colombia has taken several measures to integrate non-conventional renewable energy sources in the national energy mix. After the introduction in 2014 of the law 1715, which regulates some incentives for those projects, the national Commission for the Regulation of Energy and Gas (Creg) has approved the resolution 030 that allows small energy producers to generate energy for self-consumption purposes and sell their energy surplus. Furthermore, the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy introduced in March 2018 the decree 570 that sets the basis for a regulatory framework for the publication of a mechanism for long term non-renewable energy contracting. It is expected that this decree will turn out into an imminent publication of the rules for the announcement of a large-scale auction. This auction is expected to allocate between 1 GW and 1.5 GW of power. About 5 GW of solar and wind projects are currently registered by the national Mining and Energy Planning Unit (UPME)  as being under development in Colombia.