Electricity transmission in Colombia: overview 2025

This report by the Stockholm Environment Institute provides a 2025 overview of Colombia's electricity transmission sector, detailing the institutional framework of the National Interconnected System (SIN) and the structural challenges hindering the integration of new renewable energy generation.

• Colombia's electricity generation capacity is projected to grow from 20.9 GW to 38.9 GW by 2030, driven by 18 GW of already approved projects, predominantly from renewable sources.
• The National Interconnected System (SIN) is facing critical operational limits, with available transmission capacity falling below 5% in several regions and 90% of substations expected to exhaust their short-circuit interrupting capacity within five years.
• There is a systemic failure in project implementation, with 55% of the 20 active transmission projects experiencing delays. Some projects have been delayed for a decade or more, including Bacatá-Norte (12 years) and Sogamoso Norte-Nueva Esperanza (10 years).
• The Master Plan for Modernization and Expansion of the Electrical Transmission Infrastructure identifies 98 strategic works; the report states that completing 44 of these would resolve 149 operational constraints projected between 2024 and 2037.
• The Mining and Energy Planning Unit (UPME) adopted the Territorial Engagement Model in 2025 to address delays caused by socio-environmental factors, licensing difficulties, and misalignment between national energy planning and local land-use planning.
• The Caribbean region exhibits the most severe grid strain, with 16 restrictions in an emergency state and 15 in an alert state, further complicated by the withdrawal of the network operator AFINIA from STR projects.
• Long-term projections from the National Energy Plan indicate that by 2052, Colombia will require a grid capable of transporting three to five times the current supply, necessitating approximately 50,000 km of additional transmission lines.

APA

Tovar, G. S., & Vega-Araújo, J. (2026). Electricity transmission in Colombia: overview 2025. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/electricity-transmission-colombia-2025-overview.pdf

Chicago

Tovar, Germán Sáenz, and José Vega-Araújo. Electricity transmission in Colombia: overview 2025. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2026. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/electricity-transmission-colombia-2025-overview.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tovar |first1=Germán Sáenz |last2=Vega-Araújo |first2=José |title=Electricity transmission in Colombia: overview 2025 |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=June 2026 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/electricity-transmission-colombia-2025-overview.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tovar2026electricity, author = {Tovar, Germán Sáenz and Vega-Araújo, José}, title = {{Electricity transmission in Colombia: overview 2025}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2026}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/electricity-transmission-colombia-2025-overview.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }