Generation | Reservoirs | Spot Market | Rates
Comparing Colombia’s vs Spain’s generation
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Analytical Monitoring of Colombia’s Electricity Market and Energy Matrix
Understanding the electricity sector is essential to assessing economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability, and the security of national supply. This Colombia Energy Observatory stands as an advanced open-data platform that processes, integrates, and publishes key metrics from the National Interconnected System (SIN). With automated updates twice a day (10:00 AM and 7:00 PM), the portal centralizes records from market operators and regulatory agencies, offering a transparent view of the energy value chain.
To support a structured, technical assessment, the observatory organizes its open-data analytical flow around four core thematic areas:
- Generation and Energy Matrix: Real-time tracking of production in MWh by hour, day, month, and year. It allows for evaluating the share of different technologies in the energy matrix, breaking down hydropower generation, thermal generation (backed by coal, domestic gas, imported gas, or diesel), and the growth of Non-Conventional Renewable Energy Sources (NCRES) such as wind, solar, and biomass.
- Water Reserves and Reservoir Levels: A critical indicator for the country, calculating the daily usable capacity percentage of the main reservoirs (such as Ituango, Guavio, Peñol, El Quimbo, and Topocoro). The analysis is grouped both individually and by hydrographic zone to anticipate energy stress or extreme drought conditions.
- Rate Structure and Service Cost: A detailed breakdown of the Unit Cost (CU) in Colombian pesos per kilowatt-hour (COP/kWh). The system tracks spot market energy prices and disaggregates each component of the final rate charged by retailers (Afinia, Air-e, EPM, Enel, Celsia, among others) by department, socioeconomic stratum (1 to 6), and applicable rate option.
- User Characterization and Demand: Dynamics of total billed consumption, average consumption per user, and system imbalances, enabling the identification of geographic and socioeconomic patterns across both the regulated and unregulated markets.
The platform also includes an international benchmarking module that compares the national market with Spain’s Iberian Energy Market Operator (OMIE). This comparison highlights consumption and technological diversification asymmetries, shedding light on the challenges facing Colombia’s model in terms of transition and resilience against large-scale climate events.
Frequently Asked Questions About Colombia’s Energy Sector
What components determine the energy rate (COP/kWh) in Colombia?
The final energy rate paid by users is calculated as the sum of six components regulated by the CREG: Generation (G), Transmission (T), Distribution (D), Commercialization (C), Recognized losses (P), and System restrictions (R). The Observadores Col observatory allows monthly visualization of which component has the greatest impact on the bill in each department of the country.