The National Government, headed by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Irene Vélez Torresand the electricity sector companies disclosed the measures taken within the framework of the Pact for Tariff Justice, a project that seeks to alleviate energy prices in the country.
According to Minister Vélez, more than 82 electric power companies joined the Pact, which seeks to generate a reduction in rates from November 2022. The discounts would be between 4% and 8%.
“Since December 2020 there has been a high effect on energy rates and Colombians have been greatly affected. We have had to face a dilemma: either we pay for energy or food. For this reason, we wanted to address this situation as an emergency and seek solutionsVelez commented.
Thus, the official explained the first two measures that were taken in the Pact to reduce energy rates:
– Renegotiation of bilateral contracts purchase and sale of energy between generators and marketers, which will generate a positive impact on the rate, at the national level, in terms of reduction.
– The indexer, which is what is used to measure the components that affect the rate, it will be the lower between the Producer Price Index (IPP) and the Consumer Price Index (IPC).
“About the indexer, we already started a worker to have a specific indicator for the sector“recalled the minister.
The National Government will monitor these two actions, which “they are the first step in a series of decisions focused on the just energy transition. We want the democratization of energy and that is one of the pillars of the Tariff Justice Pact“.
Irene Velez. Minister of Mines and Energy
The participants in the Pact
From the Commission for the Regulation of Energy and Gas (Creg), They insisted that the measures adopted, in this first package, seek to alleviate.
“We are reviewing the indicators to update the components of the rate. The idea is to alleviate the situation, which has been derived from the anomalous behavior of the indicator“, commented Jorge Alberto Valencia Marín, director of the Creg.
He also said that the efficiency signals are being analyzed to be close to the desired levels and that users pay what corresponds for the services.
“That the remuneration is adequate and that companies make investments and improve quality. Thus, users will have a suitable service to meet their needs“, he added.
The Colombian Association of Electric Power Distributors (Asocodis), For his part, he stated that the relief would represent savings close to 1.5 billion pesos.
And he called on users to put their ‘grain of sand’: “Bills have two fundamental components: cost and consumption (multiplication of the two variables), so we ask for efficient consumption and that the reliefs are not lost with increases in consumption.“.
Finally, from the Colombian Association of Electric Power Generators (Acolgen) made a request to the Government: “It would not be consistent, after all these actions, to tax hydroelectric plants, as was proposed in an article in the tax report. That puts investments in renewable energy at risk. We trust that this proposal can be corrected so that users do not see it reflected“.
Among the companies that joined the Pact for Tariff Justice are Edsa, Enel, Celsia, Emcali, Vatia, CEO, Cedenar, EPM, AES, Isagen, GEB, among others.
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