The Portugal substation in the Engativá locality in the west of the capital Bogotá marks a milestone in the modernisation of Colombia’s electricity sector.

The 40MVA substation, completed at a cost of more than Co$25 billion (US$6.9 million), is located near to the Salitre Wastewater Treatment Plant, where it will support decontamination of the Ríver Bogotá, as well as meet the growing demand in the west of the city, with the highway through the locality a main axis for development.

The Portugal substation, the first to be 100% digital in Colombia, is the second to come into operation of the more than thirty that are envisaged in the Bogotá-Region 2030 expansion plan, which seeks to modernise and strengthen the electrical infrastructure in Bogotá and the surrounding Cundinamarca department.

“Digitalisation is a path that we are constructing day by day to provide a better service to our customers,” says Francesco Bertoli, general manager of Enel-Codensa.

“In the Portugal substation, the processes for the acquisition of field information, supervision and control are completely digital, generating additional benefits in security, productivity and reliability of the information.”

Among other characteristics, the Portugal substation has a simpler configuration and thus fewer points of failure than traditional substations and the modernisation, expansion and maintenance processes are optimized, which will lead to fewer interruptions. The substation also has much reduced use of copper cables by 80%, providing improved worker safety.

During 2021, significant progress is expected with three more substations, terminal, located in the Fontibón area adjacent to Engativá, which includes the international airport; San José in the Los Mártires area of downtown Bogotá; and the Calle Primera substation, which will be a new substation with an underground transmission line to support the new first metro line extending 24km between the southwest and northeast of the city.