Enel Americas will concentrate its investment plan through 2024 in Brazil and Colombia
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – An investment plan for US$8.9 billion for the period 2022-2024 was detailed by Enel Americas, the subsidiary of the Italian company of the same name, which groups assets in most of the countries of the region, excluding Chile.
As explained by Maurizio Bezzeccheri, CEO of the company, to Diario Finenciero, the plan has three axes: to increase its deployment in renewable energies, aligned with the strategy of its headquarters, to have zero emissions by 2040.
In this regard, the company proposed a budget that is being concentrated in Brazil – the central market where it operates – and Colombia, with 61% and 21% of the total, respectively; followed by Peru with 10%, Argentina with 7% and the rest of Central America with 1%.
By technology, 38% of the resources will go to renewable energies and 3% to thermal generation. This is equivalent to some US$3.6 billion in total. “We are going to add 3,500 MW of new capacity”, stressed the Italian executive.
When asked about the effects that the new goal of abandoning natural gas production in 2040, announced last week by its parent company, will have on local operations, Bezzeccheri explained that they will have to implement a program to phase out this technology, as they are already doing with coal by 2027, especially in the Termozipa plant in Colombia.
“It is our firm intention to phase out power plants, replacing them with renewable generation,” he said. He added that this would also involve venturing into battery systems, where the first country has been Chile, but they are already being implemented in Colombia and Peru.
Here, he added, the idea is to include these systems in all the plants they have in operation in Brazil and other countries because of the benefit they can bring for managing generation, for example, when lines are congested. In any case, he acknowledged that the big issue to be solved is how regulators recognize these investments, something they are working on with local authorities.
NETWORKS
He explained that 55% of capital expenditures will go to strengthening networks, especially their digitalization.
Bezzeccheri emphasized that this is the second axis of his plan because it is in line with being a company that delivers services to consumers – beyond a commodity – to manage their consumption and other actions, for example, those related to electromobility.
With information from Diario Finaciero
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