Colombia needs new energy auction, says Wärtsilä

Colombia must assign new firm energy contracts to thermoelectric power generators to avoid potential shortages, Finnish engineering firm Wärtsilä has warned.

Earlier this month, power generators in the Andean country secured contracts for 156GWh/d at an auction for standby electricity, but it might not be enough to guarantee future supply, according to Wärtsilä Colombia's managing director Roberto Lares. 

"It is a little worrying because demand has grown and we are delivering less than there was in the last auction [five years ago]," Lares told newspaper Portafolio. "The possibility of holding a new auction should be analyzed."

Lares questioned why the Colombian government had "great apprehension" toward thermoelectric power plants. 

In addition to providing reliability to a system that will be increasingly reliant on intermittent renewable sources, gas-fired plants could be retrofitted to run on clean hydrogen, he said. 

Lares also called on policymakers to prioritize battery storage projects, which he said were needed to ensure the future viability of solar parks and wind farms.