Client Experience
Innovation
We dare to be different to carry out innovations and develop tailored solutions for our clients.
GRI (103-1) Innovation is part of our DNA; it is a transversal axis to the Organization and it is implicit in two of our cultural pillars: “We dare to be different” and “We are agile and reliable,” which allows us to find new ways to advice our clients, to generate new-business models and be flexible when it comes to finding a solution that suits our clients, allowing us – in addition – to better manage our assets to sustainably contribute to the diversification of the country’s energy matrix and present innovative solutions that have a positive impact on our Stakeholders.
Our Management
Horizon 1
Exploit core businesses
Horizon 2
Scale emerging businesses
Horizon 3
Experiment with future growth options
Horizon 4
Explore high-potential initiatives
GRI (103-2)
In our strategic business planning by horizons – where innovation is oriented to the four horizons, with a greater emphasis on the medium and long term (H3 and H4) – the Innovation Team guides the incubation of business ideas or use of technologies up to the stage of commercial pilots, so that there is a progressive integration of the key areas to fine tune and scale the product (H2), and finally consolidate it as a business in commercial exploitation (H1).
In 2021, we consolidated work cells to strengthen businesses, such as Energy Efficiency, resulting in a portfolio of services for our clients; likewise, in Information Technology (IT) and data-analytics projects, we have developed agile methodologies for project execution.
Finally, we have formed a dedicated team for the design and development of comprehensive digital solutions for digitization projects, using cutting-edge technologies.
Innovation is in our DNA and our culture. Through the pillar “We dare to be different,” we challenge ourselves to be disruptive and propose development paths that break paradigms and seek new ways of doing things in all the teams of our Organization.
Innovation Hotspots
GRI (103-2)
Energy Storage
We identify and evaluate business opportunities to store energy in different activities in the sector, from small to large scale.
Electric Mobility
We continue to install charging Infrastructure in the country, equipped with different technologies, to continue encouraging new forms of Transportation that generate fewer emissions, as is the case with electric cars. Additionally, through Muverang, we support sustainable mobility by promoting vehicle decarbonization from sustainability.
Data Science
We maximize the use of our databases to generate valuable, actionable information, with tangible benefits for the Company in operational efficiency, client experience and new products or services.
Hydrogen
We analyze the potential of this type of energy through the evaluation of pilot projects and the identification of the role we could play in the medium and long term.
Energy Efficiency
We developed a platform with the Internet of Things (IoT), aimed at providing mechanisms for our clients to monitor and make decisions to optimize their energy consumption.
Smart Metering (Advanced Metering Infrastructure, AMI)
We expanded the metering infrastructure in our Valle del Cauca and Tolima networks, in order to improve client-demand management.
Ultradigital
Innovations in the Internet service have allowed us to offer new ways of offering this service in institutions and public parks and the linking of new gadgets that complement the service.
Digitalización
The development of initiatives that seek to revolutionize the electrical network, approached from projects formulated before the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia, such as:
- The digital transformation to enable a digitized, distributed, democratized and autonomous network in the Departments of Valle de Cauca and Tolima, in Colombia.
- The development of a microgrid in Yumbo, Colombia.
ReverdeC
An Initiative to increase the forest cover and ecological restoration of hydrographic basins, leveraged on innovative methods.
Main results
GRI (103-3) The highlights of our management in 2021 were:
Digital Network 2.0
We promoted a national regulatory sandbox, identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to improve the quality of service and the required capacities, to migrate towards a Distribution System Operator (DSO), providing tax benefits to the Company.
Strategic Alliances
We strengthened alliances with various suppliers and the academic sector through different initiatives with the University of Valle and the National University, and allies, such as IGT, Micol, PTI, Metrum and Colombia Inteligente.
Microgrids
We materialized the microgrid of our site in Yumbo, as part of a tax-benefit project through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia, and currently under construction is the first isolated microgrid in an industrial client (existing generation + Celsia solar).
Storage
We developed a commercial product within the solar-retail business that involves the integration of small-scale storage systems, together with the development of an inhouse platform for monitoring.
Muverang
We provided services with 849 electric vehicles in business and personal contracts. Additionally, we launched two new digital services, namely: taxi requests for companies/employees and taxi requests for the general public, resulting in more than 35,000 trips and around 2,000 active users on the technology platform.
Smart Metering (Advanced Metering Infrastructure, AMI)
We added 20,388 clients with AMI metering, achieving 32% of the goal set.
Charging Infrastructure-Management Platform
We connected 48 public and private charging stations in the cities of Cali, Medellín, Bogotá, Tolima, Quindío, Yumbo and Cartagena, in Colombia; and Honduras, in Central America. We have commercialized nearly 900 electric chargers for the home sector. And in order to track electric vehicles under subscription models, 50 Muverang vehicles were integrated into our monitoring platform; and, lastly we connected five of our electric vehicles to the platform.
ReverdeC
We carried out the first tree-planting pilot using drones and plant biotechnology for in-vitro reproduction and germination to facilitate the propagation of native trees. In 2021, we achieved the historical figure of 3,000,000 trees planted per year with the program. This was thanks to the ecological-restoration methodology implemented and cost optimizations, achieving a milestone of going from COP 6,000/tree between 2016 – 2017 to COP 2,700/tree in 2021.
We had an increase of
0
%
in the resources earmarked for innovation in Colombia in 2021, compared to 2020.
Our Own (C-IN1) Below, we highlight the investment in innovation that we have made in recent years:
Investment in R+D
The increase presented during 2021 corresponds primarily to the following initiatives:
More than
COP
0
Billion
invested in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Digital Network projects, which open the doors to digitization, linking new technologies to achieve a more-intelligent distribution network. In four years, we have reached COP 80 billion invested.
More than
COP
0
Billion
Executed in the Advanced Generation Diagnosis Center (AGDC) project, which includes the modernization of hydraulic plants through sensors to more-optimally monitor and diagnose their operation.
More than
COP
0
Billion
invested in AMI infrastructure, which contributed an increase for Valle del Cauca and Tolima, in Colombia
Awards and Recognitions
New Challenges
GRI (103-2)
These are our short-, medium- and long term challenges:
(0 to 2 years)
- Increase the Small-Scale Storage Portfolio with different configurations, as well as increase the geographic coverage of the product.
- Bring the implementation of microgrids closer to the national regulatory horizon, proposing a controlled testing environment (regulatory sandbox).
- Exponentially grow the taxi-request service business and manage to represent 30% of Muverang’s income and reach a fleet of 2,000 electric vehicles managed.
- Develop a platform with intelligent-route estimation that integrated different means of transport.
- Develop digital capacities in cases of use of the distribution network in our networks, which facilitate the deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs), microgrids Virtual Power Plants (VPP), which allow improving planning- and service-provision indicators, and achieving greater participation of the demand.
- Connect the pubic- and private-charging stations deployed in Colombia to the Charging Infrastructure-Management Platform.
- Implement a hydrogen pilot project, which allows us to understand the technology, its costs and assess market potential.
- Simplify and automate data-science processes within our Company, resulting in operational efficiencies and data-driven decision making.
(3 to 5 years)
- Mobilize at least 7,000,000 taxi services annually and be exposed in at least eight different channels with the mobility-request service (taxi, metro, buses, etc.).
- Develop a technological platform that allows third parties to offer their vehicles in the different rental services offered by Muverang.
- Transform the process of planning, operating and maintaining the distribution network, through the implementation of digital networks and automated processes (sensors) aimed at monitoring, controlling inspecting (drones, virtual and augmented reality) and the automatic restoration of the network.
- Evaluate the technical and regulatory panorama of the adoption and potential mass use of green hydrogen, as a complementary fuel in the National Energy Matrix.
- At the Advanced Generation Diagnosis Center (AGDC), provide the Operations and Maintenance Team with information and tools that allow them to analyze phenomena and anticipate equipment problems, based on the analysis of defined critical variables, identified as causing generation problems.
(6 or more years)
- Consolidate the Innovation Team as a research center that facilitates the penetration of new technologies in the markets of influence, strengthening and deepening University-State-Business relations to guarantee the sustainable development of our clients.
- Contribute to the massification of retail Innovation Transactional Platforms.
- Design, build and incorporate artificial intelligence and advanced-analytics models in the distribution network, which facilitate the transformation of the expansion and management of the distribution network to the accesses and services of prosumers.
- Lead the transformation of the electricity sector, through the installation, administration and coordinated operation in real time of distributed resources embedded in the network, using cutting-edge technology in hardware and software.
- Develop hardware that can operate on the “Edge” and proprietary IoT technology for device integration, in terms of energy efficiency.
- At the Advanced Generation Diagnosis Center (AGDC), it is expected that there will be a reduction in the intervention in machines in an unplanned manner, as well as a reduction in failures of the different equipment and operation systems, causing a reduction in operating costs. We seek to optimize long-term investments in generation processes, based on sufficient information to have more decision elements when carrying out new processes.
Glossary
AMI: Advanced Metering Infrastructure
Internet of Things (IoT): A digital interconnection of everyday objects with the Internet. Thus, they become intelligent objects that send and receive data to improve their individual and integrated functionality, both individually, as well as integrated to the elements connected.
Microgrids: A group of distributed loads and energy resources with a clearly defined electrical frontier, which has the ability to be self-sufficient and operate in isolation or in parallel with the electrical system to supply local demand.
Minciencias: The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia.
Muverang: An electric-mobility venture, developed jointly with SURA and Bancolombia, which seeks to contribute to the development of sustainable cities.
