Thousands of vehicle owners and fifty companies in Bogota will have to recur to gasoline as the compressed natural gas supply was cut off indefinitely Tuesday night.
The supply interruption owes to the lack of duct capacity now that the gas companies have to furnish gas to the thermoelectric power stations that recently started operation in Colombia.
Thermoelectric power station came to the rescue of hydroelectric power plants that do not produce enough energy to meet Colombians’ power needs because of the low river flow to the country’s dams.
Low river flow is caused by El Niño, a periodic change in the atmosphere associated with droughts and other weather disturbances. Colombia’s electricity is provided mainly by hydroelectric power plants.
In 1992 the Niño made the Colombian government impose daily blackouts in order to preserve the little water in the dams.
Last week Huila, Tolima, and Santander had also compressed gas shortages, but the supply in those departments has come back to normal.
