After Two years into Gustavo Petro’s government, the sectoral balance is mixed. In the case of the energy mining sector, which according to the information published in the National Planning Department (DNP) progress in two years is 28.2% in the six indicators that were established for the four-year period.
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The data presented by this entity reveal that Only three have had any implementation, while the remaining half have accumulated progress of 0.. The indicator with best progress It’s of New users with electric power service benefited from public and private resources, the execution of which is 53.5%.
The second The indicator with the best percentage of progress is the commercial operating capacity of electricity generation from non-conventional sources. renewable energy (Fncer). This records a advance of 47.80%.
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It is worth remembering that the National Development Plan proposed as The goal is that by the end of the Government there will be 2,297 megawatts of electricity coming from these technologiesIn this regard, the reported progress is 1,254 megawatts, approaching half of the objective.
However, the Presidency stressed that A target of 6,000 megawatts (6GW) has been set for the four-year period, above the initially set objective. for the period, in addition to highlighting that the installed capacity of solar and wind sources has multiplied by 10.
The third objective on which progress has been made is that of Number of residential users connected to the home gas service fuel by networks, in which the percentage of progress is 39.54%In this sense, the Plan estimated that in four years there should be a total of 12.76 million connected users, of which 11.85 million users are currently connected.
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Energy community in Guainía
Ipse
No progress
There is three objectives that are set out in the National Development Plan that have not made any progress. Such is the case of one related to the energy transition and two related to mining.
One of them is the dand new users with energy generation from non-conventional renewable energy sources that benefit from energy communities. For this the objective is to 20,000 users; however, National Planning has not recorded any progress.
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However, the Ministry of Mines and Energy explained to Portafolio that Yes, there has been progress on this point. “On May 17, 2024, in Bojayá, we launched the National Strategy for Energy Communities, with the delivery of 23 educational energy communities in Chocó“, they explained.
He added the portfolio that in total are 28 communities that have been inaugurateds: 23 in Chocó, 3 in Guainía and 2 in Sucre. Additionally, they are working in 1,000 communities that were prioritized and that they are seeking to build.
According to the data presented by the portfolio The progress made so far has allowed 3,400 citizens to benefit after an investment of $19 billion.
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Two other goals in which nor progress is reflected in those related to areas for strategic minerals, that in the period the goal was 30 new areas evaluated geologically for strategic minerals and 30 new areas assigned for use of minerals.
Howeveror, so far, no progress has been reported on any of these key indicatorss.
With regard to this sector, the Presidency particularly highlighted the case of the historic royalty collection, which was achieved thanks to “thanks to the strengthening of the exercise of oversight and massive requirements on our part to the mineral exploiters in the country, coupled with the historic rise in coal prices”.
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Mining
PHOTO: iStock
Doubts and uncertainty
Tomás González, director of the Regional Center for Energy Studies (Cree), said that “eThe government came with a a very strong agenda of rupture that he outlined in his government program: no exploration, no offshore, no fracking, no fossil exports, no open pit mining, no hydroelectric reservoirs“. However, Some of the ideas have had to be reconsidered due to their difficulty in implementing them..
Some of the actions taken during the first half of the mandate have raised concerns and uncertainties regarding the impacts they could have on the different sectors.
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One of the cases is related to President Gustavo Petro’s attempt to take over the regulatory functions of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CREG) and subsequently leaving the entity without a quorum or with appointments only on a commission basis. This has led to unions and companies asking for stability and technical criteria for the appointment of this Commission, which is key to establishing the rules of the game for the sector.
With respect to Mining, decree 044 of the Ministry of Environment was presented which establishes the criteria for declare and delimit temporary natural resource reserves within the framework of mining and environmental regulations.
The application of this measure, according to unions and experts, is that could prohibit the development of this activity in areas where mining titles have already been assigned, under environmental criteria that would be studied later, to define whether it is actually an area that should be protected.
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Gasoline
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More actions
A point that stands out González is that this Government managed to match the price of gasoline with the international parity, thus closing this gap that was generating significant debts for the Fuel Price Stabilization Fund.
At the moment, Diesel is below parity, about $5,000 difference per gallonaccording to estimates by Julio César Vera, president of Xua Energy.
“We must applaud him for the rise in gasoline prices that was bleeding public finances dry, but diesel is pending“, Gonzalez said.
Daniela Morales Soler
Portfolio Journalist
