Your electricity bill, explained
What you pay each month and why the total goes up every year
Hardly anyone looks at their electricity bill past the total.
Yet that's where the answers to three questions that matter are:
What you're paying for on your bill
The CREG builds your tariff by adding up six components. The energy itself is only one part: the rest is getting it to your meter and managing it.
Your bill, inside
Generation~37%Moves with the rain
The energy itself, bought on the wholesale market or by contract. Its price goes up when reservoirs run low.
Distribution~32%
The local networks that carry the energy to your meter.
Retail service~12%
The company that meters you, bills you and manages your contract.
Transmission~8%
The national high-voltage grid that moves energy between regions.
Losses~8%
Energy lost along the way, shared out among all users.
Restrictions~3%
Extra costs of running the system when the grid can't use the cheapest generation.
Approximate share of each component. It varies by network operator, market and socioeconomic stratum, and changes month to month.
Why the total goes up every year
Colombia's power generation depends on water: when reservoirs drop, the price goes up. And XM projects a growing shortfall of firm energy through 2027. A small increase every year, added up over twenty years, becomes a big one.
April 2024: +23% in a single month, with El Niño
Today, each month
COP 2,500,000
In 2045, each month
COP 6,317,375
What you'd pay in total, from today to 2046
COP 991,978,623
- You could stop paying
- COP 148,796,793
- You'd keep paying the grid
- COP 843,181,830
We'll tell you which part can be replaced in your case. No strings attached.
Reference estimate. It assumes your bill grows 5% a year and that a solar contract replaces about 15% of what you pay. The actual figure depends on your tariff, when during the day you use energy, the installation site and the contract you sign.
Why solar doesn't wipe out your bill, only part of it
A solar system replaces energy you buy today, not your connection to the grid.
Stays the same
- You stay connected to the grid
- You still get a bill
- You still pay for distribution and retail service
What changes
The price of part of the kWh you use. That part stops rising with the tariff.
In Colombia, there are two ways to do it
If your usage is high
We put a solar plant on your property and you sign a power purchase agreement. You don't buy equipment: you pay for the energy you use, at a rate below today's, for 10 to 20 years.
How a PPA worksIf your usage is a household's or a small business's
You link your bill to a nearby solar farm under the Comunidad Energética (Energy Community) model and get a discount on your tariff. You don't install anything and you keep the same electricity retailer.
What an Energy Community isBoth models operate under Ley 1715 de 2014 (Law 1715 of 2014) and Resolución CREG 174 de 2021.
The solar projects we are structuring
We structure and run solar projects under those two models. These are the ones we have today in La Pintada, Antioquia.
Project in Structuring
Project in StructuringLearn more about the business model and how you can take part
We'll answer your questions on a call.
This conversation is informational, about how the project is structured. It is not financial, legal or tax advice, nor a public offering of securities. Every participation carries risk.