Priority will be given to awarding 7 transmission projects to reduce unmet demand

This Wednesday, July 24th lThe Mining and Energy Planning Unit (Upme) announced that it will launch a package of calls for proposals to build seven transmission projects in the country that will be built in six departments: La Guajira, Cesar, Magdalena, Bolívar, Chocó and Norte de Santander.

(In context: Caribbean and Chocó at risk of blackouts due to saturated networks)

These works will be a priority to respond to the challenges that have been seen in transmission networks from these regions and that led to XM to warn that there would be a lack of attention in demand due to the difficulties in transporting energy in these areas.

These are part of a response strategy to network exhaustion in three regions: Caribbean, Chocó and Norte de Santander. “These areas urgently require a sustainable medium-term solution.“, the entity said.

To present these to the market a ‘express’ allocation mechanism, which will allow you to shorten the allocation timesas well as some administrative deadlines, thus speeding up the execution of these works.

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For the Caribbean block, the works include the Installation of synchronous compensators in La Guajira, Cesar and Magdalena and which will be the first of their kind to be put into operation in the National Interconnected System. Likewise, in Magangué, Bolívar, the Magangué substation and the respective transmission lines will be built. This would allow “the capacity to adequately supply demand to be expanded.”

The Synchronous compensators are all 50 megavolt-amperes reactive (MVAr) and would be installed in substations The Bank, La Jagua, Maicao, Guatapurí and Bureche.

It is worth noting that according to XM, Unmet demand in these markets is a risk, due to network saturationwhich has led to transmission lines reaching their load limits, generating risks for the system.

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For Crashedwhich is another of the markets in which this same situation has been alerted, the Upme also announced that urgent measures will be taken, including Two new substations at 220 and 115 kilovolts in addition to a 30 MVAr (megavolt amperes reactive) dynamic compensator.

“This last It will be carried out using the urgent works mechanism, while the two substations will be executed through the conventional mechanism.“, the entity reported during the celebration of its thirtieth anniversary.

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Finally, For the Norte de Santander region, the expansion of the Tonchalá substation in the metropolitan area of ​​Cúcuta is proposedas well as the installation of dynamic compensators at the 115 kilovolt Ínsula substation. These works will be carried out using the conventional mechanism.

The objective of the Upme is to ensure that the different works can enter into operation within a period of between 4 and 7 years, thereby reducing the cost of restrictions in the system and decreasing unmet demand in these markets.

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