UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Camilo Younes-Velosa, a visiting scholar at Penn State and a tenured faculty member at Universidad Nacional de Colombia (National University of Colombia), will lead a seminar on the evolution of Colombia’s electricity sector and market structure.
His free talk — “Can a Hydropower-Dependent Market Survive Climate Shocks? Lessons from Colombia’s Electricity Sector” — is scheduled for noon on Wednesday, Oct. 15, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State's University Park campus. It’s part of the fall seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI).
Younes-Velosa will discuss vulnerabilities in Colombia’s power system exposed by recurrent El Niño events; the role of thermal generation and renewable energy; and social and economic debates around tariffs and equity. He also will address economic mechanisms designed to ensure reliability in a water-dependent system.
“Colombia’s electricity market is one of the most unique in Latin America: a system built on hydropower, shaped by ambitious regulatory reforms in the 1990s and now challenged by the realities of climate change and the global energy transition,” Younes-Velosa said.
The seminar will delve into Colombia’s insights for emerging and developed economies in balancing resilience, competitiveness and sustainability in their electricity markets, he said.
Younes-Velosa is a faculty member in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering and Architecture at his university’s Manizales campus. He earned a doctorate in electrical engineering and has extensive experience in teaching, research and consulting on energy policy, regulation and power systems.
At Penn State, Younes-Velosa is collaborating with the Center for Energy Law and Policy on research that addresses the intersections of energy regulation, resilience and climate change.
About EEEPI
Established in 2011, EEEPI operates as a University-wide initiative at Penn State with support from the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Institute of Energy and the Environment. EEEPI seeks to catalyze research in energy and environmental systems economics across the University and to build a world-class group of economists with interests in interdisciplinary collaboration.