Climate Change
ISA counts on a climate strategy aligned with the
priorities and joint actions of governments, the
society and companies, based on a consolidated
practice of offsetting GHG produced by the
operation of the Energy Transmission business.
The Company considers the commitments of
COP 21, SDG, and climate change phenomena
in recent years in its risk map, and plans a series
of actions, most of them focused on climate
change mitigation.
The reduction of emissions
by means of investments in the modernization
of equipment and more eco-efficient products,
process improvements, sustainable mobility,
and awareness of employees is also sought.
In addition to identifying and optimizing
potential GHG sources, ISA and its companies
annually offset their emissions through carbon
credits generated in Conexión Jaguar Program
projects, thus seeking to make the Group carbon
neutral by 2020.
Mitigation
Measurement
- Our GHG emissions are calculated under the World Resources Institute (WRI) methodology of GHG Protocol and the ISO14061-1 standard. Emissions for the Energy Transmission Business in 2018 were 39,604 tonCO2e, including Scope 1, 2 and 3.
Emissions for the Energy Transmission Business (tonCO2e)

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CTEEP emissions were more than 50% of the total inventory because of the high number of its assets that presents SF6 leaks due to the age of its infrastructure. SF6 gas is required in some high-voltage equipment and has a great Global Warming Potential (23,500), which means it’s our main source of GHG emission.
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Reduction
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In 2018 we have established targets in terms of GHG emissions reduction. These targets consist of:
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Contribute to the reduction of 9 million tonCO2e through the support for forest conservation projects provided by our sustainability program “Conexión Jaguar”, contributing to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.
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Contribute to the reduction of 2 million tonCO2e mainly through the incursion into new energy businesses and secondarily through the environmental impacts dismiss.
Scope 1
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Considering that SF6 gas leaks corresponds to our main GHG emission, we have the consolidated target that SF6 leaks should not be higher than 0.5% with respect to the installed inventory by 2020, according to the IEC 62271-1 standard which establishes the technical specifications for an optimum performance of high-voltage equipment that the current technology allows to.
Invetory vs Leaks

- The inventory or installed capacity of SF6 tends to be greater as the years go by, due to the entry into operation of new projects that each time demand more quantities of this gas due to space restrictions in the territory; however, the most important aspect to highlight is that despite the growing inventory, the percentage of leaks has been decreasing according to such increase. This has been achieved thanks to the good practices and proper maintenance, avoiding the leakage of 0.163 ton of SF6, equivalent to 3833 tCO2e. We took the following actions to constantly improve our performance in SF6 management:
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- Preventive maintenance to switches
- - Continuous improvement in leak registry in the SAP system
- - Use of infrared light cameras for timely detection of leaks
- - Overhaul to guarantee tightness of the enclosures that contain the gas
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- Replacement of defective high-voltage switches
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Scope 2
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The contribution of GHG emissions due to energy consumption depends directly on the emission factor and therefore compliance of the target also depends on it. It’s important to mention that we don’t have control on the emission factor because it depends on the behavior of the energy market.
- Despite the intensity of energy consumption have low relevance impact on Energy Transmission business, we stablished the goal of reducing energy consumption by 5% to 2019, based on the average of the last 3 years.
Offsets
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We have as a target that ISA and its companies will be carbon neutral in 2020 by offsetting their GHG emissions through the purchase of carbon bonds from the projects of our sustainability program “Conexión Jaguar”. Aligned with this objective, ISA, INTERCOLOMBIA and XM were carbon neutral for the fifth consecutive year and REP achieved that status for the first time by the compensation of 100% of their GHG emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3).
Conexión Jaguar Program offsets

Adaptation
- In countries where ISA is present, they have a low contributionto global emissions but high vulnerabilityto the effects of climate change.
Risk management
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ISA has identified climate change risks that have potential to generate a substantive change in our business operations. Regulatory and physical climate parameter risks are identified:
Risks driven by change in regulations:
- Main risks are the intensification in environmental management of infrastructure projects related to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation measures and the increase in the offset of GHG emissions.
ain risks are the intensification in environmental management of infrastructure projects related to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation measures and the increase in the offset of GHG emissions.
Risks driven by change in physical parameters:
- Correspond to an increase on the intensity of the climatic phenomena (El Niño Southern Oscillation and La Niña), with consequences such as: fall of transmission lines, change of design criteria, weakening of foundations, among others.
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Opportunities
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The ISA2030 Strategy - Sustainable Value, includes within its goals the incursion into new energy businesses to diversify its business portfolio and impact positively the environment by decarbonization of the energy system. As an analysis, four lines of business were prioritized for development:
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- Energy Storage
- - Distributed Energy Resources -DER-
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Grid connection for renewable energy projects
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Regional Energy Integration
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