Enel reveals it was preparing a "megabattery" five times larger than the bid in Colombia's auction: key details of the project

Enel Green Power had planned to participate in Colombia’s most recent long-term energy auction with a project whose energy volume equated to 500% of the total energy offered, according to Antonio Crisol, Head of Colombia for the company, during the Future Energy Summit (FES) Colombia 2026.

The initiative, which represented a major bet on energy storage, ultimately could not be incorporated into the process due to the competition restrictions established in the contracting mechanism.

"In the last auction, we wanted to go with a new battery of truly industrial scale, but we could not. We could not because of the competition rules that limited it," Crisol revealed.

The executive specified that the proposal had a considerable dimension relative to the energy volume available in the storage segment of the call, although he did not specify the installed power or the storage capacity planned for the infrastructure.

"Indeed, the battery we intended to install in the country from this auction was 500% of the total energy being offered (we were five times larger than everything else)," the Enel representative stated.

According to the auction results, published by Energía Estratégica, the process allowed for the contracting of 4,564 MWh-day between Products 2 and 3, while Products 1 and 4 concluded without any assignments.

In particular, Product 4 received no awards due to the 40% regulatory concentration limit, as stipulated in CREG Resolution 101 109 of 2026.

According to the results published by the Colombian Commodity Exchange (BMC), the optimization algorithm found a technically feasible solution, but this exceeded the competition threshold permitted by the regulations.

This occurred despite the segment having nine buyers and four qualified sellers, although the number of qualified participants does not necessarily correspond to the economic bids actually submitted.

The situation coincides with one of the main criticisms raised by Crisol, which points out that only two bidders participated in Product 4 and that regulatory conditions limited the company’s participation.

“It is a shame that we lost this opportunity,” the executive stated, referring to the possibility of incorporating storage infrastructure into the Colombian system.

The outcome takes on particular relevance given the demand for flexibility solutions evidenced by the call. In Product 3, dedicated to solar projects with storage, buyers requested 9,421 MWh-day, while sellers offered only 747 MWh-day.

Thus, buyer interest exceeded available supply by 12.6 times, and only 390 MWh-day were awarded, equivalent to just over 4% of the demanded volume.

This segment allocated 270 MW of solar capacity accompanied by 100 MW of battery storage, at a weighted average price of 315.87 Colombian pesos per kWh.

For its part, Product 2 awarded 725 MW of photovoltaic capacity and 4,174 MWh-day, at a price of 246.13 Colombian pesos per kWh. The difference between the two prices reached 28.3%, although these are products with different attributes.

The data reflect commercial interest in incorporating storage into the power system and allow for an assessment of the context in which Enel had prepared its proposal.

However, the capacity of the megabattery projected by Enel cannot be determined from the 500% comparison, as Crisol refers to the energy offered and does not disclose the specific system capacity in MW or MWh.

Enel is betting on long-term auctions and projects to sustain its investments in Colombia

"Long-term auctions are certainly necessary in Colombia. It is true that the private market has grown significantly, but I would say that they are not substitutes for one another; rather, they are quite complementary," the executive stated.

The executive believes that auctions offer longer contracting horizons than private power purchase agreements (PPAs), which allows for reducing developers' commercial exposure and improving financing conditions.

"A long-term auction provides a 20- or 30-year term, which is difficult to achieve with a private PPA," he explained.

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Although the latest Colombian tender established 15-year contracts, Crisol argues that longer-term contracting mechanisms are particularly relevant for capital-intensive projects.

"I would really say they are absolutely necessary, as for developers and investors, they reduce commercial risk and also facilitate financing," he added.

This stance is linked to the multinational’s continued presence in the Colombian energy market. According to data presented at FES Colombia 2026, Enel has over 4,000 MW of installed capacity distributed across 17 power plants, including hydroelectric and solar generation.

This infrastructure represents approximately 19% to 20% of the country’s capacity and energy, according to figures presented by the executive.

Furthermore, Crisol highlights that in 2025, the company added 380 MW of alternating current capacity, a proportion he considers significant within the new installations commissioned in the domestic market.

"Colombia is one of Enel's six main countries. In recent years, we have been investing approximately one trillion pesos annually across generation, distribution, and retail, and under our new industrial plan, we intend to maintain this trajectory," Crisol stated.

However, to ensure the execution of new investments, the multinational's representative calls for stable regulatory conditions and planning that extends beyond government terms.

Environmental permitting and transmission: the other challenges identified by Enel

Another point addressed by Crisol during FES Colombia 2026 was the uncertainty associated with the environmental licensing of energy projects.

The executive questioned the addition of new obligations to previously granted environmental authorizations, a situation that, he explained, creates difficulties in planning investments and communicating regulatory risks to the company’s parent entity.

As a reference, he compared Colombia’s regulatory conditions with those observed in European markets where Enel also operates.

“In Europe, in Spain or Italy, you are granted an environmental license—known there as an integrated environmental authorization—for 10 years, providing a stable framework to understand the rules of the game,” Crisol explained.

The representative of the multinational corporation argued that predictability is crucial for mobilizing private capital toward generation, storage, and grid infrastructure.

“What a private investor at Enel, or any of you, truly avoids is risk and unpredictability,” he emphasized.

This challenge is compounded by the need to accelerate transmission infrastructure works, a component that Crisol considers fundamental to ensure that generation projects effectively reach commercial operation.

In this regard, Crisol calls for greater speed between decision-making and the commissioning of new power plants and transmission lines, along with long-term sectoral planning.

As a concrete proposal, it suggests that the National Government select between 10 and 20 priority generation and transmission projects, through a consultation process with market operators.

"I will ask the Government for just one thing, and in fact, we have already asked for it: that it selects a set of projects by listening to the operators, 10 or 20, no more, between transmission and generation, and that it conducts bimonthly or quarterly follow-ups on these projects from the Government to ensure deadlines, to ensure that these projects are operational when the country needs them, and to maintain a project prioritization," the executive proposed.

The initiative would allow for the concentration of institutional oversight on infrastructure deemed strategic, with review instances every two or three months to verify the progress of the schedules.

The proposal gains relevance following an auction that has already committed new solar capacity and storage, but whose projects must go through the stages of financing, licensing, construction, and connection before the contractual start date scheduled for 2030.

In this way, Enel maintains its commitment to the Colombian market and highlights the need to combine new auctions, predictable regulatory rules, and greater execution capacity to facilitate the incorporation of energy infrastructure.

The mega battery that the multinational sought to present constitutes one of the examples highlighted by Crisol regarding the existing investment potential in the country and the conditions that, from a business perspective, must be reviewed to enable projects of a larger scale.