CELSIA S.A. E.S.P. (CELSIA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Gonzalo Velasquez from the communications team of Celsia and I want to invite you and welcome you to the Meeting of the Trimester Results 2024. Ricardo Sierra, Leader of Celsia; Esteban Piedrahita, Financial Leader of the company; Santiago Arango, Corporate Business; and Carlos Solano, Leader of Regulatory Matters are here today. This teleconference is being held on Zoom, but it's also transmitted live through the X platform. [Operator Instructions] And we have reserved space at the end for your questions, so you can ask them once the presentation is over. [Operator Instructions] We want to thank you very much for being online in this teleconference. And now I hand the floor to Ricardo Sierra, leader of Celsia. Welcome, Ricardo.

Thank you very much, Gonzalo, and good afternoon to those joining us today in this Zoom connection and the live space that we have through X. This is an hour different from our conference of results, but we are loaded of information to share with you about the closing of the third trimester quarter of 2024, and welcome. I want to start with a comment about the pressure of the monthly pressure. As you know, between 2023 and April 2024, we had the phenomenon of El Nino. And as a consequence of the same, the country reached the level of the aggregated reservoir, the lowest in the last 20 years. They recovered between the months of May and June. And we saw something in July, reaching an aggregated reservoir of 60%. However, this variability of the climate that was observed in August and September has taken us to the seas of the aggregated reservoir located in the end of the trimester in 50.2%. The climate models are indicating that the temperatures of the surface of the sea in the Pacific are continuing to cold. And that will favor the development of La Nina, but the prognosis has established its delay and it will be short starting in this last quarter of the year. So, what it should be a transition month in the system, interconnected system, it became a period more like to the El Nino phenomenon with the generation of water phenomenon. The area reservoir that corresponds to marginal space registered in the third quarter an average of [ COP 1,266 ] of kilowatt per hour and the scarcity was located lower. As you can see in the graph, you can see how that evolution of that price was and how it had, had a stretch that has been very intense over the last month. In the midst of these conditions, today, we are reporting the results with -- in the EBITDA with 24.5% that reached [ COP 3 point million ] and they are in the 24.5% margin without looking at the previous month. The capacity of the company and the measurement adopted in the previous years allowed us to grow in 35% and the parent company in 27% and that reached to -- that despite that we had a decrease in the EBITDA, our net utility grow very healthily over the quarter. These results -- these positive results are mainly in measurements in order to mitigate the phenomenon of El Nino. First place, I want to talk about a transaction that all of you know from 2019 when we sold the Termoflores thermal plant. Give me one second, please, because we are having a technical difficulty. In the account from Gonzalo, the X account of Gonzalo apparently -- okay, let's continue here. I am in Gonzalo Velasquez's account. Apparently, there is a problem and I was not being heard from the X account. So, now I'm going to read a few paragraphs and I wanted to explain a little bit about the climate volatility that had been in the pressure of the water hydro --water and later, we are going to talk about that and the volatility that it have had. And the prices have been, of course, answering to that need of the last kilowatt available in the country. In addition to that, I was mentioning that the financial results despite of having an EBITDA in [ COP 345 million ], if you compared, it will represent a decrease of 17%. The net result was earn of 35% and the parent company of 27%. And those are numbers that reached [ COP 110 million, COP 74 million ], respectively, during the quarter. These positive results in the net income are mainly in a measurement thought about mitigating the phenomenon of the El Nino. And I want to talk about 2019 when we sold the thermal plant -- power plant, Termoflores that had a superior capacity. And we had a prime for USD 35 million, but we had the option for that to be paid in a model of purchase of energy. And this option allow us to have energy available in dry moments and that happened in 2020, 2023 and the total in 2024 of 460 gigawatt hour. This is equivalent to the energy produced by 3 PCH additionally of 20 kilowatts that are working. The exercise of this option ended recently. And just as it allows us to manage the risk of El Nino and it was also a good decision. If you think about how improved to include this operation of optionality of $35 million in energy that help us 90 points of the profitability of this asset reaching 19% in total. On the other hand, we have been heard to speak in the last teleconference about climate derivative that we have acquired since last year with the purpose of covering precisely the long period of low contributions that we have observed. For the execution of these financial coverages, we have received USD 14.8 million, which has allowed us to manage the risk during the last few months. These are sources and instruments that allow us to present shareholders today with an increase in profit despite the recent difficulties in the sector. That means that through options of energy and climate derivatives that are not only but very innovative options that have not been used in Colombia to mitigate risk, but we carried out of them that has allowed us to obtain really good results over the last quarter. Now, let's talk about our projects here, both our vision of operators at the Energy Services business and that of Asset Manager come together. We are very happy and proud because we put into operation the first solar energy storage system in Colombia with batteries, which marks a milestone in the energy transition process that we promote in Celsia. The system is part of the Celsia Solar Palmira of Palmira 2. And the combination of solar panels with batteries manages to overcome the [indiscernible] of intermittency and allow us to improve the generation profile, adapting to the conditions demanded by customers and the market. The use of this technology helps us to continue advancing in diversifying our energy metrics and encourages us to continue innovating for our customers. Likewise, we can tell you that we are really eager of this new asset that comes to improve the possibilities of availability of energy for our clients. And we believe that you are going to start to listen a lot from Celsia, the growth in battery as a complement of our generation strategies in the service of the clients. Likewise, we also have progress in the Carreto Wind project. You can see some beautiful images of the shovels that are entering the places where they are going to be installed. The equipment for this project has already arrived, which will deliver 9.6 megawatt of clean and renewable energy. The transfer of these 8-meter (sic) [ 80-meter ] long shovels on the Caribbean roads require an important logistical process to be able to transport them from the Port of Mamonal in Cartagena to the municipality of Juan de Acosta in the Department of Atlantico. This project is a demonstration that you can find wind in other parts of the country and we can continue growing in the clean and efficient energy with these resource that is renewable, which is the wind. We hope to have this project in operation at the end of December or at the beginning of next year. Now, let's continue with the management. These platforms allow us to accelerate the growth in strategic business of the company, maintaining operational management and project execution. Let's see the state of C2 Energy. This is the big platform of solar plants. This platform has 339 megawatts in 19 solar plants, and they have produced 372 gigawatt hour over the year with an availability factor of 95%. These plants in operation have long-term PPAs with customers and/or deliver energy to the scene. The EBITDA margin of this platform is reaching 83%. In total, it's COP 112 million in the course of the year with a growth of 47%. In C2 also, we have 270 megawatts under construction in 12 projects. And in different stages of development, there are 632 megawatts and we hope to have in operation. As you can see in this slide, 1,254 megawatts for 2030. It's something really impressive to multiply over 4x the availability of solar energy that we are going to have as a company and likely in terms of the batteries that are coming, these numbers should also grow in a proportion that is very important. The Laurel platform, which develops a smaller-scale solar project, there, we have in operation 48 megawatts in 123 systems that have produced 33.6 gigawatts during the year with an availability factor of 98%. Laurel has an EBITDA margin of 39% and adds up to [ COP 4,870 million ]. On this platform, we have additional projects for approximately 60 megawatts and if you see everything that we have in this platform and what we hope to have for 2026, we are hoping to reach to 108 megawatts in total. The transmission platform has operation assets totaling [ COP 2.5 trillion ], have tripled in the last 4 years and have an availability factor of 99.9%. In the year, Caoba has incorporated 12 new projects that were developed by the company and that represented revenues of approximately COP 313 billion. In the course of the year, Caoba reached EBITDA of [ COP 229 million ]. Now, let's talk about the Tesorito platform, a natural gas thermal plant with a capacity of 200 megawatts that serve as a support for the system. In the quarter, it had a generation of 79.3 gigawatts per hour that balance the lack of energy and the hydraulics and thus, we fulfill our contracts from reliable and competitive energy sources, maintaining a balanced conversion risk profile. It's important to mention that Tesorito has a gas contract with Canacol that is activated when it is 95% of reaching the shortage price and the plant has maintained the availability of gas for its operation. In the year, Tesorito accumulated a generating of 279 gigawatts hour with a variation of minus 34.7% and its EBITDA margin is 35%, reaching COP 107 million. Additionally, this platform has feasibility studies and environmental license for an expansion of 200 megawatts in addition to that. Before giving a way to Esteban for a brief comment on the results, I remind you that we continue with the development of our share buyback program. We have executed 22.9% of the amount approved by our shareholders' meeting, which has resulted in 16.9 million shares bought back to date. Since we announced the start of the buyback program in December last year, the stock price has risen more than 55% and the average daily volume traded has multiplied 2.6x compared to that of 2023. We hope to start buying back again tomorrow through the exchanges transactional mechanism after the closure period prior to this delivery of results. Now, I hand the floor and welcome Esteban.

Thank you, Ricardo. Good afternoon for everyone who are here joining online in this wonderful winter day when the water is coming in the way we need it and the analysis of results and the other financial information, you can see them in the report in the website. In the third quarter, revenues totaled [ COP 1.4 billion ], showing a decrease of 5% compared to the same period in 2023. These results are mainly due to less assets transferred to the Caoba and the rail platforms for 2024 in the last quarter are being loaded for this year. In Colombia, we have lowest average stock market price in the quarter and we have a reduction in the Central America region associated with the divestment of assets carried out in the [ third ] quarter of 2023. In the accumulated year, revenues reached [ COP 4.7 billion ], growing 3%. In the distribution of total revenues per year, 81% is contributed by Energy Services with COP 3.82 trillion and Asset Management contributes 19% with COP 871 billion. The quarter sales costs reached [ COP 1.07 million ], registering a 1% decrease due to lower cost of public goods and services and general cost of the operation. In the accumulated year, sales costs totaled [ COP 3.6 billion ], with an increase of 13%. Administrative expenses reached [ COP 85.5 billion ] with an increase of 11.7%. The increase in the quarter is mainly due to the personnel expenses, leases, equipment maintenance that are very cyclic. In the accumulated year, the expenses reached to [ COP 273 billion ], growing 7.3%. EBITDA for the third quarter was [ COP 345 million ] with a reduction of 16.7%. After the presence of El Nino in the countries, the EBITDA had a recovery that was very important during the first part of this quarter, reaching a margin for the month of July and August of almost 28.4% and that represents 350 points that we have informed in the second quarter of 2024. And due to the expectation that Ricardo was mentioning, in September, the thermal plants, Porvenir and the Tesorito, they started to generate to balance our portfolio and that increased the cost of generation and transferences by Tesorito. And due to that, the accumulated margin of the quarter was 24.5%, aligned with the one registered in this year. At the end of September, the accumulated EBITDA of the year reaches [ COP 1.13 billion ], of which the Energy Services business contributes to [ COP 1.08 billion ] and the Asset Management business contributes COP 35 billion. The managed EBITDA, which includes our management of investment platforms in these 9 months of the year amounts to [ COP 1.47 billion ] and that's what we call the total. Net financial expenses, including difference in return reached COP 134 billion with a decrease of 38.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. The decrease corresponds to the lower interest payments due to the improvement in the conditions in the interest rates and for difference by the end of September, it's located 12.5%. And in the net at [ COP 451 million ] and that represents a reduction of 34.2%. Profit taxes were COP 41 billion in the quarter, and increased 21% compared to the same period of the previous year. In the accumulated year, taxes totaled COP 106 billion, represented a decrease of 35%, explained by the taking of the tax benefit linked to the Law 1715 for the entry into operation of several solar farms in 2023, and Ricardo was mentioning that in the presentation. The net profit for the quarter was COP 110,288 million with a growth of 35% and the accumulated year totaled COP 279 million. The net profit attributed to the owners of the controlling company reached COP 74 million accumulated year-on-year reached COP 193 million. And the debt we had [ COP 5.35 trillion ] and a leverage indicator of 3.23x net to the EBITDA. And a bond that closed the quarter in COP 215 billion. However, we want to mention that this amount could have been higher by approximately COP 80 billion if the subsidies of strata 1 and 2 and 3 paid by the government had entered that it used to be or used to happen and that will be COP 300 million. Ricardo, that does finish the analysis of the financial figures accumulated for the year.

Thank you very much, Esteban. Esteban is going to Peru to see the [ Ibe's ] operation that we are developing in Peru. And maybe in the questions, we will be able to talk about that. I would like to highlight in the results that we came with an important recovery in the operations in the month of July and August, but that the low availability of water resources lowered the momentum we brought. In any case, the net result was above, as mentioned, and at the beginning of stands out for a long dry year. Given the situation of contribution and availability of gas, I would like to invite Carlos Solano, our Leader of Regulatory Affairs, to briefly tell us the news we have. Carlos, welcome.

Thank you, Ricardo. Good afternoon to all those accompanying us in today's meeting. The most prominent regulatory issue in recent days is the activation of the shortages statute since September 30. Due to the evolution of the aggregated reservoir below a reference level previously defined by the CREG as a result of the low hydrology that Ricardo mentioned in August in September and what was also happening on October, to which it is added that the stock price had not exceeded the short gauge price, so the thermal generation hadn't be activated to the maximum. This statute essentially seeks to increase the aggregated reservoir through the achievement of a thermal generation goal defined by the CREG where to achieve this goal that offers of the hydro plants are intervened. The energy not produced by the hydro plants due to this intervention is subsequently remunerated under a figure called sold and bond energy. It is important to mention Celsia has a good position in the face of the situation due to the balance of its portfolio between hydro and thermal, which means that it does not receive significant impact as a result of the activation of this statute. The second relevant issue is the intervention by the Superintendent of Public Services to the [ IDEC ] company on September 12. So far, the main effect is the portfolio that was frozen as a result of the intervention and in which the exposure of sales and its platforms is low. So, our management through the gilt has been focused on promoting so that the government has the necessary resources so that IDEC duly complies with its payment commitments to the system. Ricardo, those are the topics that we wanted to mention in the sector. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. In the question, if someone wants more clarity about the statute and the situation of the system, please go ahead. I want to mention that I want to tell you last week, we filled COP 16 with energy with very good messages. We were in a conversation about the role of biodiversity in the future of businesses and how to integrate nature into the business strategy through care and conservation actions, which allow to create integral value as levers for sustainability and strategic growth. We had events with clients and many groups of interest and we had wonderful guests. We had Paola Fajardo, and she's a Colombian, wonderful intervention. Andrew Winston, who is one of these groups in these areas and writer of 3 books and has a very important book call Net Positive, and they share their visions about the mega trends and the topics related about how to achieve a commitment or a balancing between the needs of the market and the need of sustainability. So, we finished our report of the third quarter. And now we invite you to have a space of conversation to deepen about the information that is important to you. Gonzalo?

Thank you very much, Ricardo, Esteban from the airport and Carlos, who is also here. Now, let's go to our round of questions. [Operator Instructions] We have a question from [ Juan Pulgarin ]. Juan asks, Celsia is growing over the inflation. The closing projection is to grow or increase growth over that. And in case it's a positive answer, how many points over? Esteban, please, if you have the possibility to answer to Juan's question.

Of course, Gonzalo. Juan, exactly how many points I cannot tell you because we have not done the calculations but the growth over inflation, of course, we have been deploying new assets, not only at the level of the platforms, as we have mentioned, the C2 and Caoba growth and the stabilization of Tesorito over this year. And all those are elements that contributed. In fact, our utility continues growing because our base of asset is bigger. And the same thing happens in the business of energy, the price, the growth was not the same as it was before, before. But in the platform, we are still deploying investment in new assets, especially in the topic related to transmission and distributions and there is where we have had more recurrences in terms of investment. On the other side, we have what we have mentioned in previous calls and it's related to the reduction of the cost of debt. That was a topic that we have mentioned in the [indiscernible] and then that our incomes were aligned with the cost. Once they go back to a regular situation will give us a positive answer in terms of the utility. So, you can see it is basically the real growth in the asset and also the reduction of the operational cost at normal levels that will help us to have a growth in terms of the profit.

Thank you very much, Esteban, for answering that question from Juan Pulgarin. And now Katerine Ortiz. She is from Corredores Davivienda.

Hello, how are you. Can you hear me well?

Loud and clear.

Okay. Thank you for the presentation. I would like to talk further about the topics that Carlos Solano mentioned at the end and also to understand if you and we saw that the closing of the reservoirs was 27%, very low level. For you, this situation is more concerning that we experienced at the beginning of the year with the phenomenon of El Nino and to understand if you think that there is a high probability or what is the level of probability to have blackout in Colombia at the beginning of next year when we start to see that while the reservoirs do not answer to adequately to what we should have this time of the year, we could have a risk of blackout at the beginning of next year if we are in summer and also to understand more in detail about the statute of shortage because Celsia had this diversification, there were not material effects, but I want to understand if that energy is being paid, how it is being compensated at what price and to understand more in detail the effect of that statute, what level of the reservoirs activates that? How long could it last? I don't know if you can help me with that.

Okay. Katerine, very good questions. And here with Carlos, we're going to try to answer them first. I'm going to give you some context, Carlos, and then I hand you the floor so you can explain a little bit more about the shortage statute and how -- we have a technical issue with X. Okay, Katerine. I want to tell you our vision. The shortage is that the first time that is activated in Colombia. Sorry, we are having some technical difficulties. Katerine, everyone, I'm going to give you the context about what we are seeing. The shortage statute is the first time that has been applied in Colombia. So, it's something that we are entering into a scenario that is very well prepared for a scenario where the recovery curve of reservoir didn't comply with the curve of reference. It could be activated in a preventive way and activate all the measurements. So, we will not miss a kilowatt during the summer. There is a very complete study that was just released by the CNO and they carried out important analysis about the projections of needs of energy for the following months and years. And let me give you a vision of what we are feeling. First, today, in Colombia, there is not a single thermal that is not on. All the thermal of the country are at full capability to save water. And what is happening is that the last month have been in deficit. The projection, Katerine is that we are going to go with the thermic to the full to spend the next summer between January and March and we will be turning off them during March. What the projections show. So, we are going to have complex movements because the system is very stressed. We are expecting for everything to work perfectly and the margins of security, they just finished. But Carlos, can you complement the vision?

Thank you, Ricardo. I'll be giving you more information about the context. The situation that we have as a system is that from one side, the margin between offer and demand has been reduced because the generation capability of the country is not growing at the same time of the demand. And what is required by the electric system every time is smaller and that we add to what just Carlos mentioned, we have a water hydrology that are very low. And those 2 aspects take the system to a very complex situation. So, how can this be monitored? The main element created for that is the preference for the reservoir is a curve and those values change day by day, month by month, defined by the CREG. And in essence, it means that if the aggregated reservoir is in that area or above that, we are okay. But when the aggregated reservoir goes beyond that area, the alerts start because we have no space. And that is what happened last September 30. So from that moment, the activation of the [indiscernible] was explaining consists in finding some measurements to force the thermal plants that are on. So, in essence, what it's done, the offer of the hydro plants that enter to the office in a normal way, but are pushing the general -- the thermal -- they start to have a superior price, so they don't go away and force to have the thermal generation. We have been with this measurement to September 30. Today, the aggregated reservoir is in 56%, and we are 5 percentage points below the send. And that indicates that for November 30, we should be in the 68% when the summer start, but the hydrology is evolving. Even if we have an extraordinary hydrologies from the remaining numbers of -- or days of November, we are going to reach the 68%. That doesn't mean there is going to be a blackout, but we are going to be in a very complex situation. And as Ricardo was mentioning, the consequence of that is that we are going to need to have thermal generation very high now for a long period of time. And the risk is that one of the thermal plants will fail due to that continuous operation of the system. Here, the regular or the periodic are contemplated, but not something that will be long lasting over time. And that is the risk. So that is to answer the question about the remuneration. Let me tell you that those hydro offers that intervene that those plants are not left aside, but the water that is safe is going to be given to the offer price. And some thermal plants are going to start to be put aside. And that depends on the portfolio of hydro and thermal. Some that have hydro could have some liquidity difficulties in the way the market is being liquid. These days, it could have some negative impacts. The advantage that we have at Celsia is that we have a very diversified portfolio, have hydro, thermal and that gives us the opportunity to have a very solid and resilient position. How much it will last? That's the last question to ask. That will remain until the aggregated reservoir will be above the path of reference, and we prevail that in the next weeks, the statute will continue to remain active.

Wonderful explanation. I was just thinking about a small question. In terms of gas for the thermal and everything that has been discussed in terms of the gas, do you see a scenario? I know that Tesorito has some specifications in that matter, but you see a scenario of risk in the fuel for the thermal plants?

Well, I think that we have a great advantage, and it is that we have the option of gas purchase that is activated in the 95% of the level of the scarcity and that allows us to have a very good coverage. But clearly, today, we depend or rely on the important gas that is very high. But what we see in the 5 days of the plant, we had to move gas from the interior of the country and we had the opportunity to help on that given some -- or well, to the totality of the gas that we have for Tesorito and [ Marie Electrica ]. And there are 2 things, Katerine. There are not many molecules available. [indiscernible] had a communication that they had not reached their percentage for -- of demand for 2025 and we are buying in dollars and natural gas that is very volatile in its price. So, we are generating a very high cost to cover the needs of the country. So, I think it is a combination that is not so good. Very sadly, we lack of domestic molecules and we are replacing them with molecules brought from abroad. And there are not contracts to attend with the internal demand, but those who know that are the ones who are in the business of natural gas of the homes. Thank you, Katerine and thank you very much to you.

Now, we hand the floor to Ricardo Sandoval from Bancolombia, who is also on the Zoom call raising his hand.

I would like to ask some questions to Carlos and Ricardo about the price, [indiscernible] price on the stock market that we saw on October that it's over COP 1,500. And I want to know the weighted price of COP 1,500, it's basically 3x of what we saw in February this year when the reservoir had very low levels of water. I understand the regulatory topic that Carlos just explained very deeply, but it still calls my attention that elevated price, especially when the weighted shortage price is about COP 917, COP 1,000. I would like to know why the price on the stock market is reaching that level and especially when you see the offer of the price per fuel, you see that the hydroelectrical plants and especially on September 30, they were charging 5,000 kilowatts per hour. So, I would like to know is the electric Colombian system is not taken into account or if taken into account a blackout that is imminent and that will take the prices to this level. The second, it's about the dynamic that generator and electric commercialization has in this scenario of prices. So, the prices of the contracts are around COP 300 and 400 and in the stock market, the kilowatt per hour is in COP 1,500. I would like to know if that means that in case of a company does not have the possibility to comply with a kilowatt per hour, COP 300 needs to go out and buy at COP 1,500 and answer for that kilowatt at COP 300. I would like to know about the dynamic of market that could be generated of the different prices that you see in the contract prices and the prices on the market. And I would like to know if Celsia have had at any point during October, any type of these events.

Ricardo, your questions are really good, and they are helpful to move forward in the dynamic of the important related to the shortage price in terms of the demand in Colombia and what happens after those shortage prices we pass them. And why are these crazy prices there. And those are prices that are reached by the statute of shortage. Thank you, Ricardo. Now, I go to Ricardo to the one who answers the questions.

I'm going to start with the last part that Ricardo just mentioned. So look, in Colombia, the market or the stock market buyers are the scarcity price. So, your question, if any buyer, let's say, a distributor of energy that has not covered all their demand of contract that has a part in the box, they buy that today it's around COP 970. That price is -- those are transactions between generators, but that does not affect the buyers. And that's the first thing to take into account. But why are the generators between -- or transactions between generator. People do not understand that very well, Carlos. So for example, let's say that at this moment, since the price of the market is over the price of shortage, we are with the obligations of energy activated. So, every time we see a generator if we comply with the generation of energy and the ones who cover and has and access, it's usually covering or complementing the generator that did not comply with the firm energy. And that needs to pay to the difference between the scarcity price and the price in the stock market. So that is what I mean. The price that goes over COP 970 is transaction between generators, but does not affect the buyers on the purchase that attends to the final customer. So, what happened between February up to date? In February, the system was stabilized without the enabling or without enabling the statute. We were in the more important point, close to the scarcity price. So, when the topic became more critic, remember, the government took a measurement to force the thermal energy as a security part. And that is not a technical way from our perspective to manage the situation because that is being paid by all the Colombians via restrictions independently if they have or not the energy contracts. At this moment, the government is living their [indiscernible] and those who do not have contracts, they have an affectation level that is limited by the scarcity price and the mechanism from their own is operating as the way I'm mentioning. But what changed is that right now, they are allowing to operate the market, and we reach those prices because those are the necessary prices to generate or activate the most expensive plants that the country has and they use it for a few hours and taking into account a series of topics that are included in the calculation of the price, we reached those elevated values in comparison to the ones we saw last February. Though that is the explanation of your question. Ricardo, I'm going to complement to what Carlos says. And this shows the initial point that there is a clear imbalance between the unit generation that the country is generating versus the reality of the demand. We are missing a higher level of security. So if today, we had 600, 500 kilowatts more thermal, we were missing in the last auction, we were not -- we will not be in this place. So it's a message, Ricardo, that we need to accelerate and to help the project to be unlocked and to have auction for new energy and firm energy will help Colombia to have a safety margin that is stronger. And to conclude, Ricardo, with your question in relation to the impacts on Celsia. From the generation area, as explained in the content of the conference in a situation like this, the fact that Celsia has a portfolio that is half thermal and half hydro that allows us that the low hydrology that we have, we compensate that not specifically in exact amount, but we compensate this with the generation of thermal because we are in scarcity in Tesorito and [indiscernible] are active and that are generating good amounts that compensate the hydro generation. And as commercialized distributors, we have a good level of contracting and there is a good part and it is a part very relatively small. And I want to conclude with something. There is a regulatory disposition that allows that when this happen directly, the amount takes to the average price of the contracts. And today, it is around COP 450, COP 500. In addition to that -- or addition to that, and that to protect the clients that there will not be a strong impact for this situation. So, our clients are going to have a level of increase in the price as it's happening.

Maybe 2 clarifications. The first is the price that is by transaction between generators. It affects the final user. It's going to be collected. Okay. Let's say this. The price that we are seeing of COP 1,500, everything that is above the scarcity price of COP 970, it will not affect the final user not today nor in the future. That is what the final user pays in. What happens from thereof is a topic related between the transaction between the generators. So, when we are in a scarcity price, for example, COP 970, that does not go to the [indiscernible], but it goes to 1.5x the average price of the contract. As you were asking in your question, today, the average price is around COP 300, COP 320, 1.5x, it's around COP 470. So that is reflected in the present up to COP 470 and the difference between COP 470 and COP 970, that is account receivable and it will take taken into the invoice when that reduces below the one time when we have passed that difficult condition. And that will be reflected for some time.

And that happens, it's only for the energy in the exchange.

Ricardo, did you have more questions?

No. With this intervention, I'm extremely clear.

Very good question, Ricardo, and Katerine, I think that helps you to understand a very complex regulatory situation that we didn't experience before in Colombia. Okay. Very well. Now, let's go to IDEA. [ Pamplona Ramirez ] is asking. The portfolio of Celsia with IDEA, what is the percentage? And with the other company of the [indiscernible], how much is the portfolio to September '24? Okay, Esteban, go ahead.

The portfolio that we have with IDEA and with everything related to estimation, maybe we are waiting for the last certification, but in the totality, when we have COP 24 trillion, and that is what we would see and be on risk. The first comment is that those COP 24 trillion correspond to the activity of representation. And that means that everything that Celsia Colombia accumulated, but that doesn't mean that that's the risk of Celsia Colombia. The risk is -- it's around COP 3 million that corresponds to the direct sales of contracts and some remaining of energy. Other parties at risk of portfolio platforms assume, especially to Caoba, which is the owner of the plants in [indiscernible], which are the assets that basically pay for the systems of the Caribbean. The one corresponds to Resolution 121, Carlos, you can correct me if I'm wrong, that was a deferral of 20% that CREG applied. And the second one is Tesorito, which is a company of all this ecosystem that is selling energy. And for us, for the numbers of the organization, we expect the impact to be around COP 3 million. And of course, we are waiting for the final exercise of the account. to carry out the projections of this year. With IDEA, since it's a checking portfolio, I don't have the answer right now immediately. But with the team, we can tell you what is the balance that we have for the end of the quarter. And complementing what you are mentioning, the portfolio that you mentioned is a portfolio that was frozen because let's remember that when an intervention is supply, all the debts for intervention are frozen, that for legal matters. But after that, up to this moment, IDEA has been complying in a regular way with its obligation with the system, including Celsia and all the payments that correspond to the invoices for September were done in October, they did it correctly.

Now let's go with Juan Jose Munoz, who is going to do his intervention from the Zoom platform.

I have a question related to Central America. I would like to know to understand what vision do you have in regards to the operation in Central America? And what do you expect to do with the assets that you have there, taking into account that every time it contributes less to the operation to the EBITDA. I think that this semester was around $1 million only. And I would like to understand strategically what would you like to do there?

Thank you for your question. We remain with B2B assets. And with the option of a project in Costa Rica, we have a B2B very vibrant in Honduras that is also growing. We have over 60 megawatts in solar matters and with a possibility of expansion that is very important. In addition to that, we have some very valuable assets. We have a substation that is important for the transmission system that we could use and incorporate an asset, we are having conversation to see how we can manage the asset where we have as a backup there with the Cativa plant that remain there. So with the team, we are working 2 hands developing those 2 options. Central America is moving very much. One is moving in terms of generation. And we are closing some important contracts in Honduras and eventually, we are closing some important contracts in solar aspects with an [indiscernible] part that is important for Guatemala. So, we are in a role of developers. It's a role that allows us to identify opportunities. We have a technical and commercial team deployed in the region and we have them deployed for the operation of the assets. And that allows us to be very attentive for opportunities of growth that will be very interesting for the company. But you mentioned something really important that we have lowered to the presentation of Central America, but we have the task for the next conference that to see what is the future of those assets and what are the options that we have. That will be.

Thank you, Juan Jose. Now, a question that Juan Pulgarin had left about the repurchase of actions. Is the administration satisfied with the repurchase of the actions? Is it possible to see and evaluate the cancellation of that and have more and the increase of the dividends?

We are very happy with the evolution. When we see the jump of the price of the action to 50%, the volume multiplied almost 3x and also the dynamic that we are having from some investors and understanding the difference of the -- as you can see, we are very happy with the exercise, but we have a Board that periodically reviews how the program is working. And maybe next year, we can evaluate that what you are mentioning.

Okay. There are a few comments. Anonymous attendee says very good results. Congratulations for those who make possible Celsia to continue growing despite of the difficulties of the day-to-day. Thank you very much. And Katerine Ortiz, we are also attentive to the investors' stock. We had a situation on that day that we prepared with very -- with much love, but it was the day of the truck strike and we had some difficulties for the access and that's why we decided to cancel it. And we are in the team with the investors team evaluating when we are going to give them. Thank you, Katerine Ortiz, for reminding us. Juan Pulgarin says, thank you very much. There are no more hands raised. And now some closing words. Thank you very much for being here. I hope that we can see the 3 goals from [ Luis ] that we have missed them while we were here working very hard and congratulations, Luis Rigo for being such a successful businessman. And I think the managing economic growth that they had by bringing so many sports people with their families was very important, and Rigo had a very beautiful career. So, now we conclude this call and see you very soon. Thank you very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]