Drought caused by El Niño will not undermine Colombia's power grid

Colombia expects to meet its electricity needs even if an El Niño weather pattern brings dry weather to the South American nation, a government official said.

"Of course there will be stress" on the nation's power grid, Adrian Correa, head of Colombia's 2 mining and energy planning unit, said in an interview Thursday. "But we see that there is demand coverage with reliability criteria," he added.

Colombia's electricity system is vulnerable to droughts, with about two-thirds of its installed capacity coming from hydroelectricity. Another 32% comes from thermoelectric plants and about 2% is solar.

The coming El Niño could increase the likelihood of drought in the country, threatening hydroelectric reservoir levels and power production.

Reservoirs are at "very decent levels" around 64% of capacity ahead of possible dry weather, according to Correa. And, unlike the last strong patron brought by El Niño in 2015 and 2016, Colombia now has a port that allows it to import liquefied natural gas if needed for thermoelectric plants, he added.

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