According to Energy and Mines Minister Antonio Almonte, the coal-fired generation facility at Punta Catalina has received the first of five 60,000 tons shipments of coal from Colombia. This will allow the controversial power plant to restore its production of 680 mw to the national grid. However, the minister said that the recent spate of blackouts that has affected many areas of the country was due only in part to the vastly reduced output of Punta Catalina caused by a lack of sufficient coal.
Minister Almonte noted that together with the reduced output from Punta Catalina, several of the nation’s private energy producers were also out-of-service. In addition to this, there were the issues of poor transmission lines, broken circuitry, and normal breakdowns.
With the 300,000 tons from Colombia, together with the 400,000 tons currently in an urgent international tender this week and a further 900,000 in another tender that was held in June 2021, the Punta Catalina generation plant has sufficient fuel for the coming months, says the government’s top energy official.
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Ministry of Energy and Mines
Ministry of Energy and Mines
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
4 October 2021