Colombia's new Minister of Mines and Energy, María Nohemí Arboleda Arango , appointed Armando José Cuello Navarro to join the new leadership team as vice minister, according to information provided to this media outlet.
The appointment comes just hours before the change of national administration. The new president of Colombia will take office on August 7, and the cabinet members will formally begin their duties .
Cuello, who comes from the private sector , has over 15 years of experience in companies involved in energy distribution, marketing, and infrastructure in Colombia and Peru. Since March 2025, he has served as General Manager of Compañía Energética de Occidente (CEO), the company responsible for distributing and marketing electricity in the department of Cauca.
A career spanning more than 15 years at Promigas
The designated deputy minister is an industrial engineer from the University of the Andes and holds an MBA from IE Business School . Before assuming leadership of Compañía Energética de Occidente, he spent much of his professional career within the Promigas Group.
The executive joined Promigas in 2009 and held various positions until becoming the commercial manager of the organization's subsidiary in Peru. He held that position between 2020 and 2025 , before returning to Colombia to lead the company responsible for electricity service in Cauca.
The distributor highlighted when announcing his appointment that Cuello brought more than 15 years of experience leading companies in the energy sector in Colombia and Peru .
His professional background combines commercial expertise, corporate leadership, and public utility management. The move from a distribution company to national leadership will involve a significant shift in scale. Cuello will be responsible for coordinating the efforts of generators, network operators, marketers, investors, regulatory authorities, and users.
The agenda that the new ministerial team will receive will be marked by the need to accelerate the entry of electrical capacity , guarantee the reliability of the system and give continuity to the projects awarded during the outgoing administration.
The challenge of turning auctions into built projects
One of the main topics will be the follow-up to the recent auction of long-term contracts. The process concluded with 995 MW of solar generation and 100 MW of battery storage awarded , along with supply commitments of 4,564 MWh per day.
Four companies secured the contracts as sellers: Bosques Solares de los Llanos 8, Empresas Públicas de Medellín, Celsia, and Enel Colombia . The results were distributed among six projects, while six other companies participated as buyers.
The product, which combined photovoltaic generation and storage, allocated 270 MW of solar power and approximately 100 MW of battery storage , with a closing price of 315.87 Colombian pesos per kWh. The contracts will be valid for 15 years, starting in 2030.
The new administration's priority will be ensuring that these contracts are converted into completed and operational power plants. Signing contracts is a positive sign for financing, but it doesn't eliminate the difficulties associated with permits, environmental licensing, consultations, transmission infrastructure, and grid connection capacity allocation.
The market is also awaiting clarification on the continuation of pending projects. While projects 2 and 3 saw the majority of awards, projects 1 and 4 could not be executed. The arrival of the new management, therefore, raises questions about whether the Ministry will resume both categories through a new call for bids, modify their terms, or incorporate those volumes into a future auction.
“ Hopefully, a future auction will seek to relax some of the minor restrictions that may have existed in this one, both in terms of the projects themselves and the way they were awarded ,” said Gabriel Salazar, Celsia's storage director, in an interview with Energía Estratégica.
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The sector is closely monitoring this stage due to the gap between announced projects and those that actually become operational. XM warned of potential energy and power deficits during the summer of 2026-2027, associated with lower water inflows, higher demand, and delays in the commissioning of new capacity. In June, consumption is estimated to have grown 6.49% year-on-year , reaching peaks of 261.86 GWh per day and 12,475 MW of power.
This delay makes implementation a central issue for Arboleda and Cuello. Their goal will not only be to promote new calls for proposals, but also to unblock initiatives that already have commitments and ensure their timely entry into the system.
Connections, networks and the risk of a new El Niño phenomenon
The new management will also have to address the restrictions associated with access to the grid. The outgoing Ministry requested that operators submit, within five business days, an inventory of connection applications corresponding to generation, self-generation, cogeneration, distributed generation, and energy community projects .
The measure aims to identify how much capacity is actually committed and which initiatives have pending applications without concrete progress. The occupation of connection points by projects that are not yet fully developed can prevent other projects ready to begin construction from accessing the network.
Cuello will arrive at the Government with direct experience in a network operator. This background will allow him to understand the technical obligations of distributors, but also the difficulties developers face in obtaining consistent and timely responses.
Infrastructure management will be even more critical given the possibility of another El Niño event. The Colombian system remains highly dependent on hydroelectric generation , so periods of low water levels increase the need for thermal generation, energy storage, available grid capacity, and demand response mechanisms.
The outgoing Ministry called for urgent regulatory changes in light of a projected shortage of firm energy and a high probability of an adverse weather event during 2026.
Storage enters the investment agenda
Battery development will be another focus for the new team. The Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission has moved forward with a plan that enables calls for bids to award storage projects and establishes remuneration mechanisms for investors.
Resolution 40178 of 2026 incorporated energy storage into long-term contracts and integrated generation, batteries, and grids through agreements of up to 15 years . The stated objective is to attract investment, strengthen reliability, and reduce electricity price volatility.
The first 100 MW allocation represents an initial signal for this technology , although the market still needs to define complementary sources of income and rules that recognize the different services that batteries can provide.
Financial viability will depend on projects being able to recoup their investments through more than one channel. The existence of supply contracts provides a foundation, but the sector is calling for additional incentives that compensate for the flexibility and availability it brings to the system.
The new team will take over with a diverse agenda: ensuring the continuity of the auction, facilitating the construction of the awarded projects, organizing connection requests, developing the storage market, and preparing the system for possible hydrological constraints.
Cuello's appointment will also mark his departure from the Western Energy Company, an organization he has led since March 2025. The company will have to define his replacement to continue providing and marketing electricity service in Cauca.
The success of the new administration will be measured primarily by its ability to transform regulatory decisions and investment announcements in operational infrastructure. With growing demand and new risks to reliability, the margin for postponing the commissioning of generation, networks, and storage will become increasingly limited.