Isagen Full-Year 2022 Net Income Soars 135% Year-on-Year

Medellin-based electric-power generation giant Isagen announced April 14 that its full-year 2022 net income soared 135% year-on-year, hitting COP$1.23 trillion (US$278 million), up from COP$523 billion (US$118 million) in 2021.

Gross revenues rose 38% year-on-year, to COP$4.81 trillion (US$1.09 billion), from COP$3.48 trillion (US$787 million) in 2021.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 49% year-on-year, to COP$3.39 trillion (US$767 million), from COP$2.27 trillion (US$514 million) in 2021 — thanks to more power output, better prices in wholesale/industrial sales contracts and favorable capacity-charge factors.

Isagen – whose majority shareholder is Spain-based BRE Colombia Hydro Investments — operates 19 power-generation plants — 15 of which are hydroelectric — in Antioquia, Caldas, Santander, La Guajira, Meta and Tolima departments, totaling 3 gigawatts (GW) capacity, or 24% of Colombia’s national-grid total.

Continuing its strategy of having 100% renewable power output, the company signed a deal to sell its “Termocentro” fossil-fuel-powered generation plant, leaving Isagen with mainly hydroelectric power and (secondarily) solar and wind-power plants.

The company has already started construction on another solar-powered plant, a 100-MW facility at Sabanalarga in Atlántico department. It also obtained environmental license permits for a 300-MW wind-power project and a 148-MW hydropower project.

Thanks to its focus on renewable power, Isagen recent won a “green power” credit line with SMBC worth US$241 million, according to the company.

The company also boasted that it has secured COP$2.1 trillion (US$475 million) in financial instruments protecting it against currency fluctuations and interest-rate volatility.

During 2022, the company inked 65 contracts with various wholesale power marketers and industrial end-users, of which 15 contracts have durations of more-than five years, representing 65% of its total power sales.

The company also boasts of numerous environmental-protection deals in the areas around its power-generation plants, including alliances with Colombia’s national-parks agency and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).