Customers' Unmet Needs and Pains

Energy in Colombia Current Pains Analysis

Recent analyses of the Colombian energy ecosystem reveal that customers—whether households, small shops, large industries, or fuel buyers—experience a similar core set of pains that cut across electricity and hydrocarbons:

1. Expensive energy bills
   • Regulated tariffs for residential and small-business users embed high technical and non-technical losses, especially on the Caribbean coast (Air-e, Afinia service areas).
   • El Niño-driven reliance on costlier thermoelectric generation and imported LNG pushes up spot prices and final tariffs.
   • Fuel consumers face periodic gasoline and diesel price hikes linked to global oil markets and subsidy phase-outs (Holland & Knight, 2024).

2. Unreliable and insecure supply
   • Ageing distribution grids produce voltage fluctuations and frequent outages.
   • Transmission expansion lags generation growth; renewable projects in La Guajira remain stranded, limiting national reserve margins (BNamericas, 2024).
   • Pipeline sabotage and illegal taps interrupt natural-gas and fuels logistics, triggering local shortages and price spikes.

3. Limited customer choice and flexibility
   • 75 % of electricity customers are in the regulated market and cannot change supplier, negotiate terms, or opt for green products.
   • Net-metering and distributed-generation schemes are incipient; residential customers have little access to rooftop-solar financing.
   • Industrial clients report difficulty securing long-term, fixed-price PPAs that align with decarbonisation goals.

4. Long-term uncertainty about affordability and availability
   • Declining proven natural-gas reserves heighten fears of future import dependence.
   • Delays in renewable build-out and policy shifts (e.g., fracking moratorium) cloud investment signals, raising perceived risk premiums that are ultimately pushed to end-users through tariffs.

5. Social-environmental friction that feeds back to customers
   • Wind and solar projects face community opposition tied to land rights, consultation deficits, and unmet benefit-sharing promises (PRIF, 2025).
   • Project delays inflate costs and slow the addition of cheaper supply, indirectly hurting consumers.

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Unmet Needs and Pains

Drawing on the customer-pains analysis, demand-behaviour insights, and social-listening signals, the following unmet needs emerge as priority gaps that the Colombian energy sector has yet to resolve:

1. Affordability & Cost Transparency

Need: Tariffs and fuel prices that are manageable and predictable for all socioeconomic strata, coupled with clear, understandable bills.
Why unmet: High distribution losses, cross-subsidies, and volatile generation costs maintain upward pressure on regulated tariffs; bill formats remain opaque.

2. Reliable, Quality Service

Need: Fewer outages, stable voltage, and secure fuel/natural-gas supply chains.
Why unmet: Chronic under-investment in mid-/down-stream infrastructure, security risks to pipelines, and slow grid reinforcement impede reliability.

3. Universal Access & Energy Equity

Need: Connection or modern off-grid solutions for rural/remote communities still lacking 24/7 electricity; equitable treatment of Caribbean-coast users facing highest losses and tariffs.
Why unmet: Financial constraints of distribution companies, limited state funding for last-mile projects, and social-license challenges.

4. Customer Empowerment & Choice

Need:
• Ability for regulated customers to switch suppliers or buy certified renewable energy.
• Scalable rooftop-solar loans, behind-the-meter storage, and demand-response programs.
Why unmet: Market design limits competition at low-voltage levels; prevailing credit terms and permitting rules make small-scale DER adoption slow.

5. Long-Term Price & Supply Certainty for Large Users

Need: Bankable, multi-year PPAs indexed to credible inflation or FX benchmarks; hedging tools against spot-price volatility; access to green-attribute certificates.
Why unmet: Policy volatility, shifting regulatory proposals, and weak secondary markets for financial hedges.

6. Accelerated Renewable Integration with Community Buy-In

Need: Faster permitting, streamlined environmental licensing, and robust benefit-sharing models that win local support while safeguarding ecosystems.
Why unmet: Lengthy consultas previas, insufficient early-stage engagement, and fragmented inter-institutional coordination.

7. Energy-Efficiency Services & Digital Engagement

Need: End-to-end efficiency audits, appliance-upgrade financing, and real-time usage data via user-friendly digital channels to reduce bills sustainably.
Why unmet: Limited ESCO presence, scarce credit lines targeting efficiency, and utility IT systems that still rely on paper-based or monthly flat-file communications.

8. Decarbonised Mobility Solutions

Need: Reliable, nationwide EV-charging and green-hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, plus competitive electricity tariffs for EV owners.
Why unmet: Nascent charging network concentrated in major cities, lack of tariff structures (time-of-use) incentivising off-peak charging.

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Key Findings

#	Pain Point / Unmet Need	Customer Segments Most Affected	Root Cause(s)	Potential Opportunity Zone
1	High tariffs & price volatility	Residential, small commerce, fleet fuel buyers	Distribution losses, El Niño exposure, subsidy reforms	AMI roll-out, loss-reduction tech, renewable PPAs
2	Service unreliability	All segments (critical for industry)	Ageing grids, pipeline attacks, transmission delays	Grid modernisation, micro-grids, resilience services
3	Limited supplier choice	Regulated B2C & small B2B	Market design, regulatory barriers	Retail competition reform, green-energy marketplaces
4	Long-term supply uncertainty	Large C&I, power-intensive industries	Declining gas reserves, policy swings	LNG-import planning, storage, diversified PPAs
5	Social-environmental conflicts	Communities & end-users (indirect)	Weak consultation, benefit sharing	Community co-ownership, local content programs
6	Lack of energy-efficiency support	Low-income households, SMEs	Financing gaps, awareness deficit	Pay-as-you-save schemes, ESCO market development
7	Insufficient EV infrastructure	Transport sector, urban commuters	Limited chargers, tariff design	TOU-based EV rates, public-private charging rollout

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References

• BNamericas. “Six things to watch in Colombia's power sector in 2024.” 2024-01-18.
• PRIF. “Making Projects Work – Conflict and Participatory Processes in Wind Park Construction in La Guajira, Colombia.” 2025-02-28.
• Holland & Knight. “Gas Prices in Colombia Will Increase; Here Are the Reasons Why.” 2024-08-06.
• Energy Analytics Institute (EAI). “reporte-4t23-ecopetrol-eng.” 2024-03-01. https://energy-analytics-institute.org/reporte-4t23-ecopetrol-eng/
• LaNota.com. “Ranking 2024 sector energía eléctrica de Colombia.” 2024-12-05. https://lanota.com/ranking/Ranking-sector-energia-electrica-Colombia.php
• State Department. “2024 Investment Climate Statements: Colombia.” 2024-08-06.
• BBVA Research. “Colombia Economic Outlook.” March 2025.
• AAPG EXPLORER. “A Geoscientist's Perspective on Colombia's Energy Sector.” 2025-05-06.
• Global Practice Guides. “Oil, Gas and the Transition to Renewables 2024 – Colombia.” 2024-08-06.

(Only sources explicitly cited in the analysis have been included; no links from the vertexaisearch.cloud.google.com domain are listed.)