Colombia and Panama Build Cross-Border Power Grid

This is the vision of the president of the Colombian company ISA, Jorge Carrillo, who in an interview with the digital medium Valora Analitik, stated that they are looking into the regulatory part of the ambitious project. Carrillo spoke about the most challenging part of the project, which is the submarine section. Between 2029 and 2030, if everything goes as planned, the electrical interconnection between Panama and Colombia should be ready. «Perhaps the most time-consuming part due to the type of technology, which is high-voltage direct current, is the supply of equipment,» he detailed. ISA is the Colombian company working on the project alongside the state-owned Panamanian company Etesa. In addition to the submarine section, the interconnection covers 220 kilometers in length between the city of Panama and Mulatupu, Kuna Yala, and a final land section in Colombia from Necoclí to Montelíbano. From the Panamanian side, the purpose of the interconnection is to strengthen the security and energy resilience of Panama, enable electricity exchange between regions, and promote development opportunities in the involved territories. «That was one of the bold ways found to resolve the so-called Darién Gap issue,» he said. Its transmission capacity will be 400 megawatts. Regarding the cost, the executive stated it could be between $1,000 million and $1,400 million, and observing such magnitude, he catalogs it as a supremely ambitious project in its budget.