On July 9, 2026, the Colombian Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission (CREG) issued Resolution CREG 101 117 of 2026, which was published in the Official Gazette on July 15. The Resolution transforms the Centralized Information System for Competitive Solicitations (SICEP, for its Spanish acronym) into a transactional platform for conducting competitive processes for the purchase and sale of electricity.
This is a significant change. SICEP will no longer operate primarily as an information repository; instead, it will become the platform through which the entire solicitation process is conducted, from participant qualification and bid submission through contract award, electronic signature and registration with the Commercial Exchange System Administrator (ASIC).
Antecedentes: las limitaciones del SICEP
Resolution CREG 130 of 2019 established SICEP for competitive procurement processes conducted by electricity retailers purchasing energy to serve the regulated market. The system improved transparency and traceability, but it did not directly intervene in bid evaluation, contract award or contract execution. Each retailer continued to design and conduct its own solicitation, using its own bidding documents, financial requirements, guarantees and draft contracts. This diversity made bids more difficult to compare and left significant room for discretion.
In 2025, CREG published Document 901-224, which contains an ex post assessment of Resolution CREG 130 of 2019 as well as a broader review of the long-term electricity contract market.
The study identified significant exposure of regulated demand to the spot market, limited and uneven participation by generators, solicitations with little or no competition, and a high concentration of short-term contracts. It also found considerable price dispersion and an increase in unsuccessful solicitations, particularly in 2022 and 2023: approximately one in every three contracts sought through these processes failed to materialize.
In CREG’s assessment, the absence of a standardized and anonymous process constrained competition, made price comparisons more difficult and could create opportunities for discriminatory treatment among participants.
What Is the Transactional SICEP?
Resolution CREG 101 117 retains the use of individual solicitations. Each agent will continue to determine the amount of electricity it wishes to buy or sell, the delivery period, hourly profile, contract type and risk-cover requirements.
Accordingly, the new SICEP will not be a centralized auction pooling all market supply and demand, nor will it require retailers to contract a specified percentage of their demand. Rather, it will provide a common infrastructure through which individual solicitations can be conducted under standardized, anonymous, automated and traceable procedures.
The platform will make it possible to:
- Qualify agents launching solicitations and participating bidders.
- Publish bidding documents, draft contracts and other relevant documentation.
- Receive bids and risk-cover instruments.
- Preserve participant anonymity during the competitive stage.
- Automatically apply bid evaluation and award rules.
- Generate the contract document reflecting the awarded terms.
- Enable electronic execution of the contract.
- Submit to ASIC the information required for contract registration.
- Maintain an electronic record of each process and generate reports for regulatory authorities and market participants.
The SICEP administrator —initially expected to be ASIC— will know the identity of the participants but will be required to keep that information confidential vis-à-vis other market participants until the economic evaluation and award process has been completed.
Once these functionalities become operational, competitive solicitations for the purchase or sale of electricity to serve the regulated market must be conducted through SICEP. Other contracting mechanisms expressly authorized under the regulatory framework may nevertheless continue to be used, including those approved under Resolution CREG 114 of 2018 and mechanisms administered by the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
Purchase and Sale Solicitations
One of the main innovations is the introduction of sale solicitations. SICEP will no longer be used only by retailers inviting sellers to submit offers: generators and other eligible agents will also be able to offer electricity and receive bids from prospective buyers.
The Resolution establishes four alternating rounds each year: two purchase rounds and two sale rounds.
In purchase solicitations, bids will be ranked from lowest to highest price, and each successful seller will receive its own bid price. In sale solicitations, purchase bids will be ranked from highest to lowest, and all contracts will be awarded at the price of the last successful bid.
Purchase solicitations must include a reserve price, which will operate as a maximum price. In sale solicitations, a reserve price will be optional and, where established, will operate as a minimum price. The reserve price will remain confidential throughout the process.
Rules Applicable to the Contracts
Contracts awarded through SICEP may use one of the following structures:
- Pague lo Contratado — PLC (Pay-as-Contracted): the seller must cover the contracted quantity regardless of its actual generation.
- Pague lo Demandado — PLD (Pay-as-Demanded): the quantity allocated under the contract depends on the buyer’s actual demand, within the agreed limits.
- Pague lo Contratado Condicionado a Excedentes de Energía del Vendedor — PCEV (Pay-as-Contracted Subject to the Seller’s Surplus Energy): in each hour, the seller delivers the lower of its available surplus energy and the maximum quantity awarded to the buyer.
PCEV facilitates the forward contracting of surplus energy, but it does not provide firm coverage. If the seller has no surplus energy available in a particular hour, there will be no delivery under the contract. For this reason, PCEV contracts may not cover more than 15% of each retailer’s regulated-market demand.
This contract structure should not be confused with the Pague lo Contratado Condicional contract established under Resolution CREG 024 of 1995. Under the traditional conditional contract, allocation depends on the buyer’s demand and the merit order of its contracts; under PCEV, allocation depends on the seller’s available surplus.
Each solicitation must use a single contract structure. An agent wishing to contract different products will therefore have to conduct separate solicitations.
Prices must be expressed in COP/kWh. For the first five years of the contract, all prices must be established from the outset in nominal Colombian pesos, although different prices may be set for different periods. For contracts lasting more than five years, prices may be adjusted from month 61 onward using an official index specified in the bidding documents. The five-year period does not constitute a minimum contract term.
The Resolution also provides that purchases between agents that are in a corporate control relationship may not exceed 20% of the retailer’s regulated demand. SICEP will automatically verify compliance with this limit during the award process..
The Role Assigned to the CAC
The Resolution assigns a central role to the Electricity Retailing Advisory Committee (CAC, for its Spanish acronym). No later than August 31, 2026, the CAC must submit to CREG a proposal covering:
- Standard financial qualification requirements for bidders.
- Standard bidding terms and conditions for purchase and sale solicitations.
- Risk-cover mechanisms and instruments.
- A standard-form contract.
These requirements must be objective, verifiable, proportionate to the relevant risk and non-discriminatory, so that guarantee requirements do not become unjustified barriers to participation.
The CAC may not modify the procedures or the evaluation and award rules established by CREG. Its role is to contribute the technical expertise and market experience required to complete the standardization of the contractual and bidding documentation. Final regulatory authority will remain with CREG, which must formally adopt these documents no later than October 16, 2026. experiencia del mercado necesarios para completar la estandarización documental y contractual. La decisión regulatoria final seguirá en cabeza de la CREG, que deberá adoptar estos documentos a más tardar el 16 de octubre de 2026.
Implementation, Significance and Challenges
Full operation of the transactional SICEP is scheduled to begin no later than December 31, 2026. The actual go-live date will be announced through a circular issued by CREG’s Executive Director. Until then, Resolution CREG 130 of 2019 will remain applicable, together with the transitional rules established under the new Resolution.
Implementation includes three key milestones:
- No later than November 13, 2026, ASICEP must publish the annual purchase-round schedule, including the dates for advance qualification and the functionalities required for the first qualification process.
- No later than December 15, 2026, the list of bidders qualified to participate in the first two rounds must be available.
- Full transactional operation must begin no later than December 31, 2026.
The actual go-live date will be announced through a circular issued by CREG’s Executive Director.
Solicitations for which the opening notice is issued before the transactional functionalities of SICEP become operational may be completed under Resolution CREG 130 of 2019 and may use PCEV contracts. Contracts resulting from those solicitations, including PCEV contracts, must expire no later than July 31, 2027. If the first two SICEP rounds have not been completed by that date, such contracts may be extended for successive periods of up to three months until the second round has been completed.
The reform addresses genuine shortcomings in the existing framework. Standardization, anonymity during the competitive process, automated contract awards and the creation of auditable electronic records may reduce discretion, improve bid comparability and facilitate oversight of procurement processes.
These procedural improvements, however, do not by themselves guarantee greater supply-side participation.
One initial concern arises from the requirement to establish prices in nominal Colombian pesos, with no indexation permitted during the first five years. The risks assumed by sellers may ultimately translate into higher bid prices, lower participation in solicitations or a preference for shorter-term contracts.
Another critical element will be the guarantee framework. Guarantees that are excessively costly or burdensome may become a barrier precisely for those distribution-retail companies that the anonymity provisions are intended to protect against potential discriminatory treatment. Conversely, guarantees that are insufficient may leave the parties inadequately protected against counterparty default. The balance ultimately achieved through the CAC proposal and the regulations adopted by CREG will therefore be critical.
Resolution CREG 101 117 creates a more standardized, transparent and traceable infrastructure for electricity contracting. Its effectiveness, however, can only be assessed in practice, based on its ability to attract sufficient supply, broaden participation, improve the contractual coverage of regulated demand and promote efficient price formation.