Draft resolution establishing list of “minor changes” in construction of energy projects with environmental license was published
The Ministries of Mines and Energy (“MME“) and of Environment and Sustainable Development (“MADS“) published, for public information and comments, the draft joint resolution establishing a series of activities and works considered as “minor changes” or “normal adjustments” in the construction of power generation and transmission projects, whose implementation will not require the modification of their respective environmental license or any other additional authorization by the environmental authority.
The resolution proposed in this normative project would replace MADS Resolution 376 of 2016, which currently regulates this matter for energy projects, with a view to establishing a regulatory framework adjusted to the provisions that have supervened on it, especially to the Energy Transition Law (2099 of 2021), which expressly established the need to issue this new regulation (Art. 38). However, the project’s justification memorandum states that, based on a technical analysis of “what has been evidenced in the execution of energy sector projects”, the entities carried out an update of these grounds not only in light of regulatory developments but also of the identification of common situations that can be classified as minor changes in the development of energy projects.
This update, as stated in the draft resolution, proposes, unlike MADS Resolution 376, the classification of minor changes according to whether they are of common application to energy projects or of specific application to some type of project.
To this end, it establishes a list with a total of thirty-eight (38) activities and works that imply changes or categories of changes on elements related to the environmental dimension of the construction of any energy project and with the obligations of the holders of the environmental licenses granted for that purposes.
Most of the activities and works included in the list (22) were labeeled as common for electric power generation and transmission projects. On the other hand, the document foresees the express inclusion of specific minor changes applicable to each type of project: (i) wind power generation (2); (ii) solar photovoltaic power generation (5); (iii) power generation from dams, diversions and reservoirs (9).
In this sense, the inclusion of energy generation projects from non-conventional sources in the regulation on this matter is novel. Thus, for these projects it is provided that, for example, the environmental license will not need to be modified when changes are made in the location of wind turbines, as long as the new location is within the wind farm authorized in the license; or, in the same sense, the physical redistribution of a solar plant will not have to go through this procedure when, due to technological changes, it is carried out in the licensed area.
In addition, the draft regulation expressly establishes that the activities and works included in this exhaustive list “shall not require any additional assessment or pronouncements from the environmental authorities”.
The holder of the environmental license, however, must submit a descriptive report of these activities or works to the competent environmental authority for monitoring purposes, prior to the implementation or development of the minor changes foreseen in the exhaustive list.
For cases not provided for in the exhaustive list, the holders of environmental licenses may request the competent environmental authority for its pronouncement on the feasibility of developing a certain project, work or activity as a minor change, so that it can evaluate specifically whether or not such project, work or activity fits into one of the assumptions of modification of the environmental license established in Art. 2.2.2.2.3.7.1 of Decree 1076 of 2015.
The draft Resolution will be open for comments from the general public up until next Thursday, July 28, 2022. Comments should be filled out in the form provided and sent to the following e-mail addresses: mconcha@minambiente.gov.co and cmsilva@minambiente.gov.co.
For more information on this subject, please do not hesitate to contact us:
Álvaro José Rodríguez
Mariana Sánchez
