Eight days after President Gustavo Petro announced that will resume the regulation of public services in Colombiaa first draft of the decree project that would enable it for this purpose was known.
«This president has decided not delegate their functions to the commissions for the regulation of public services, at least for a time. I am going to assume control, the general policies of the administration of Colombia, directly and personally,» he said on January 26.
(Also read: With the threat of intervention by Petro «companies would prefer to leave»)
The mere announcement has generated concern in the electricity sector due to the consequences it may bring, by affecting the institutional framework that was created in 1994, after a combination of factors and bad decisions led the country to energy rationing for 11 months.
Precisely, next Tuesday it will be 30 years since this blackout ended, which corresponds to making the decision to completely transform a sector that was 100 percent under the control of the State.
The text of the draft says that the president will resume the functions of a general nature delegated to the Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (Creg) and the Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation Regulation Commission (CRA).
For this, you can request the technical support of these two commissions and other entities of each sector. However, the draft of the decree clarifies that the Creg and the CRA will continue to expand administrative acts of a private nature that he currently exercises.
Regulatory bodies should
have an independent nature to ensure that its decisions are objective, impartial, consistent
and techniques
The regulatory provisions will take into account four general guidelines: subjection to constitutional and legal principles, fines and values; guarantee of public disclosure and citizen participation in actions in this area; relevance, opportunity and quality that guarantee the principles of efficiency, sufficiency, comprehensiveness and tariff solidarity; and criteria of the tariff regime of economic efficiency, neutrality, solidarity, redistribution, financial sufficiency, simplicity and transparency.
From the first moment, the Creg commissioned experts expressed their disagreement with this decision of President Petro and stated that «regulatory bodies should have an independent nature to ensure that its decisions are objective, impartial, consistent and technical».
(Also read: Possible blackout in Bogotá generates conflicting versions between the Government and companies)
It is worth mentioning that in the CREG the director of the National Planning Department and the Ministers of Finance and Mines and Energy have a voice and vote, while the Superintendent of Residential Public Services can participate in the sessions, but without a vote. In addition, for a regulation to be approved, it must have the endorsement of a government representative.
President Gustavo Petro’s decision to resume regulation arose because electricity rates have not been lowered in the proportion that was expected and despite the regulatory measures that were announced in 2022 and to which the companies accepted.
«It is important that the decisions that respond to and technically adjust the variables that are leading to the excessive rate increase and the lack of competition in the Wholesale Energy Market in the National Interconnected System (SIN)”, stated the board of directors of the Colombian Association of Large Industrial and Commercial Energy Consumers (Asoenergía).
To achieve this goal, the union considers it necessary to update a balanced indexer for rates, control of losses and give signals for rapid and efficient expansion generation, transmission and distribution of energy.
