Great strides have been made for the development of the assembly of the Collecting line, because it already has the endorsement of 136 communities, for a key project that will bring the energy from the wind plants of La Guajira to the interconnected system.
(Read: With ‘La Sierpe’, Sucre joins the energy transition).
Thus, with the advance in record time in the development of prior consultations, the technicians of Grupo Energía Bogotá (GEB), the conglomerate that is in charge of the work, estimate that Colectora It would come into operation no later than mid-2024.
The initiative contemplates the construction of two lines of transmission in the Colectora – Cuestecitas section 500 kilovolts (kV), whose length is approximately 110 kilometers (km) each, and another transmission line Cuestecitas – La Loma, also 500 kV, but with an extension of 250 km.
Likewise, the work projects the assembly of the new Colectora 500 kV substation, and the expansion of the Cuestecitas and La Loma 500 kV substations. And its area of influence covers 14 municipalities in both departments.
(What’s more: Natural gas: only eight fields supply the country).
GEB spokespersons explained to Portafolio that the project achieved a fundamental milestone in 2021: close the prior consultations with the ancestral groups of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, the Yukpa peoples, the Afro-descendant communities and a Wayuu reservation, in order to complete the 12 prior consultations of the Cuestecitas – La Loma section.
“The foregoing made it possible to complete the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) for this section and begin the evaluation phase with the environmental authority, which is expected to culminate in the first half of this year with the obtaining of the license. It is estimated that by the end of 2022 the construction phase of the 250 km double circuit line at 500 kV that make up part of the project will begin”, explained the sources consulted.
Likewise, they underlined that for the Cuestecitas – Collector section “124 prior consultation processes have been successfully protocolized and the great challenge is to complete the consultation with the total of the 212 certified communities, so that once this process is finished we can file the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) of the section and move forward at the licensing stage.
With regard to the substations that join each of these sections, assembly begins in February of the bays of the La Loma substation and for the last quarter of this year the construction of the bays in the substations begins Cuestecitas and Collector. And in the case of the Colectora substation, it would be built when the Colectora – Cuestecitas section is licensed.
In September 2021, the GEB began the series of agreements with the communities, when it formalized with the Yukpa people the prior consultation agreements that will allow the Colectora transmission line to pass through their territory.
(See: Immediate agenda of the country in renewables, with 25 projects).
“Fulfilling the commitment with the Government of President Iván Duque, and supporting his energy transformation policy, we are carrying out these transcendental prior consultations with the ethnic communities”said at that time Juan Ricardo Ortega, president of the GEB.
The Bogota conglomerate also has in charge of the La Loma 110 kV project that seeks to improve reliability in the provision of electricity service with the connection of solar plants that are in Cesar (see box).
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