President Gustavo Petro appointed, in the modality of managers, four experts in the Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (Creg)after several vacancies opened up in recent days due to resignations and suspensions.
This is Manuel Peña Suarez, Angela Maria Sarmiento (former head of the Office of Regulatory and Business Affairs (Oare) of the Ministry of Mines and Energy), Juan Carlos Bedoya and Adriana María Jiménez.
(Also read: Fitch warns about the dangers of the Petro taking over energy regulation)
For now, these commissioned experts will come to fill the vacancies that remained after the resignation of Andrés Barreto and the provisional suspension of Sara Vélez by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Irene Vélez, as a result of a court order.
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also came out Jorge Valencia, who was the executive director of the Creg and retired in February after completing his four-year term. However, only on March 23 was the definitive vacancy of his position declared.
In addition, on April 14, the expert commissioner will leave the entity Julian Zuluaga, who also presented his resignation letter arguing personal reasons. He had entered the Creg in May 2022.
With the four provisional appointments, the President Gustavo Petro prevents the Committee of Experts (made up of six people) from being disqualified from making new regulatory decisions due to lack of quorum.
The experts who will continue in the Craig They are the current executive director, José Fernando Prada, whose four-year term ends in July of this year. In addition to Natasha Avendaño, who was appointed on August 2, 2022 by the government of former President Iván Duque.
(Also read: Creg responds to Petro: ‘Regulatory bodies must be independent’)
Manuel Pena Suarez
Es Electrical Engineer from the Industrial University of Santander, specialized in Electric Power Transmission and Distribution Systems from the Universidad de los Andes and has a master’s degree in Economics from the Universidad Javeriana.
He worked as an engineer for Electrical Projects at Centrales Eléctricas del Norte de Santander; head of the Planning Office of the Colombian Institute of Electric Power (ICEL); deputy director of Corporate Planning of the Energy Solutions Planning Institute (Ipse); Director of Energy of the Superintendency of Residential Public Services and general manager of the private company Dimco.
Angela Maria Sarmiento
He has a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the National University of Colombia, with master’s studies in Economic Sciences from the Santo Tomás University. She has worked as a technical director at the Superintendency of Residential Public Services, and adviser to the Creg and the National Planning Department.
Has experience as Professor of Regulation and Engineering at the Industrial University of Santander, Francisco José de Caldas District University and researcher in research groups accredited by Colciencias at the National University of Colombia.
(Also read: Creg warns Minister Irene Vélez about intervention in energy rates)
Juan Carlos Bedoya
He is a PhD and a Master in Electrical Engineering, with Master’s studies in Economics, and a Fulbright Scholar. He has spent more than 17 years developing projects, research and leading teams in the Colombian energy sectorCentral America and the United States.
During his experience, he has achieved the development of models to encourage the use of clean generation sources, T&D planning, regional integration, nodal markets, resilience models, transactive energy, artificial intelligence, implementation of Reliability Charge auctions and market settlement systems, among others.
Adriana Maria Jimenez
Es economist from the Pontificia Universidad Javerianawith a specialization in Competition Law and Free Trade from the same university, also has a specialization in Project Management from Cema University and a master’s degree in Economics and Public Policy from Torcuato Di Tella University.
He has 26 years of experience in public policies and regulation. She has been an advisor to the Creg, the DNP and a project consultant at PSI Consultores. She also worked in the Land Restitution Unit and in Fedepalma.