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The arrival of the Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) to serve the electric power in the departments of Córdoba, Sucre, Bolívar and Cesar, which currently does Electricaribe, remains uncertain.
Despite the fact that on August 25, the General Manager of EPM, Álvaro Guillermo Rendón López, confirmed that EPM is ready to operate in the Caribbean from October 1, the mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero, president of the group’s Board of Directors Antioqueño, said that they are analyzing whether or not Caribe Mar can enter into operation. (Read here: EPM confirms that it is ready to operate in the Caribbean)
“The company is still evaluating whether to carry out the Electricaribe operation that it won in the March auction to serve electricity in the departments of Córdoba, Sucre, Bolívar and Cesar,” Quintero said.
The problem
What would have motivated EPM to evaluate whether to withdraw from moving forward would be the deterioration of Electricaribe’s indicators, since when the business was carried out, apparently, it was agreed that the losses of the operation were 30%, but for the crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, amounted to 38%; while the turnover that was agreed at 70% and has fallen in recent months to 48%. (Also read: Will EPM stand firm to replace Electricaribe?)
Quintero revealed that “there is a clause that we put in place called ‘material adverse effect clause’ that says that, if the asset deteriorates a lot due to the pandemic, EPM could not enter”, and apparently said clause has already been exceeded by the deterioration of the indicators presented by Electricaribe in the midst of the pandemic.
There is negotiation with the Government
In this sense, the mayor of Medellín explained that there is a negotiation underway to find out if there are additional amounts that the national government must deliver for the value of Electricaribe.
“Right now there is a negotiation that EPM is doing to find out how much more the national government should give us for the value of Electricaribe,” said the Antioquia president.
For his part, Rendón López, assures that the tables of the joint in recent weeks “are on the right track”, and it is expected that the issue will be resolved in the coming days.
“We are going to define all the details, which will lead us very soon to start work on October 1. That is the aspiration of all the people who are in this corridor that I just mentioned and of course the capacities of this Organization in its 65 years, show in a conclusive way that it is the answer for the quality of the service ”, in a clear allusion to that the great bet of the new operator will be the quality of the energy supply ”, assures Rendón.
Countdown
On March 20, Electricaribe was auctioned, leaving EPM in charge of the Caribe Mar portion, which includes the departments of Bolívar, Córdoba, Cesar and Sucre; and the Consorcio Energía de la Costa, in front of Caribe Sol, made up of Atlántico, Magdalena and La Guajira. Superservicios estimates that new operators must invest $ 8.7 billion in the next 10 years to fulfill this task. In the case of EPM, the investment would be $ 5 billion.
According to the business, EPM should take over the Electricaribe operation in these four departments as of September 30, which is why it is expected that what will happen will soon be defined.
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