The Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios fined Enel Colombia $2.847 million for submitting elevated price offers in the Wholesale Energy Market that did not reflect its variable costs. This action sidelined the Betania plant from economic dispatch and caused an artificial rise in prices. President Gustavo Petro linked the issue to March inflation and demanded Enel refund the overcharge to users.
The Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos, headed by Felipe Durán Carrón, found that Enel Colombia breached Wholesale Energy Market rules by offering elevated prices unrelated to the variable costs of its Betania hydroelectric plant. Despite the reservoir operating near full capacity, these offers blocked its economic dispatch, requiring costlier thermal plants to meet demand.
The action created an artificial surge in bourse energy prices by displacing Betania with higher-cost generators, violating the principle of least-cost service. The watchdog stressed the fine ensures prices reflect actual resource scarcity or abundance, without curbing business autonomy.
"We are strengthening our inspection, surveillance, and control functions over service providers to ensure no inefficient costs are passed to users," Durán Carrón stated.
President Gustavo Petro responded by attributing a 9% rise in electricity generation costs from February to March—and March inflation—to these distortions. He urged Enel to refund the overcharge on users' next bills and criticized non-anonymous bourse transactions, which allow firms owning both generation and distribution to inflate prices monopolistically.
