ISA TRANSELCA: CO-COST project

The Guajira – Cesar – Magdalena (GCM) region in northern Colombia is expected to see a significant increase in renewable energy generation in the coming years, putting strain on the existing transmission grid. In 2021, the national planning agency, UPME, identified a need to address grid congestion on 220 kV circuits to support reliable connection of renewables, and SmartValve was selected as the preferred technology. ISA TRANSELCA deployed SmartValves across two circuits to push power off overloaded lines under N-1 conditions, unlocking 300 MW of capacity for renewable energy resources to be reliably connected to the grid from 2023 onwards. Alternate network options that were evaluated by UPME for this project were more costly, took longer to install, disruptive to communities and didn’t provide flexibility to be quickly adapted over time to meet changing needs of grid.

ISA TRANSELCA have multiple additional SmartValve projects approved in Colombia’s 2020-2034 Transmission Expansion Plan over the coming years, including a project that involves relocating a portion of the SmartValves at this CO-COST project to another location to further unlock another 500 MW of capacity.