EPM celebrates its 69th anniversary as a company that has led the development of the region through the provision of public services. In 1955, when it was created, the organization began a fundamental stage of its development by integrating drinking water, sewage, electricity and telecommunications services.
Today, nearly seven decades later, the company has adapted to technological changes and community needs, with new solutions that include solar energy, biomethane, natural gas and small-scale production of low-emission hydrogen.
At its inception, with the Housing Development program, the company opened the opportunity for many families from strata 1, 2 and 3 in Medellín to have access to public services. This initiative was later implemented in the other municipalities of the Aburrá Valley.
Over the years and thanks to social commitment, today we have innovative solutions such as Prepaid Energy and Water and the Unidos por el Agua and Unidos por el Gas programs, aimed at the most vulnerable population.
In 1955, when EPM was founded, Medellín had 500,000 inhabitants and services were in the hands of independent companies, all of them municipal in nature. Today, EPM is a multi-Latin business group, with users in six countries (Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Panama) and a diversified portfolio and investments.
EPM alone has 2,883,145 users in 124 of the 125 municipalities of Antioquia (approximately 10 million people). The Company’s services have also been extended with water, energy and natural gas to the municipalities of Barbosa, Copacabana, Girardota, Bello, Envigado, Itagüí, Sabaneta, La Estrella and Caldas.
The energy service had 75,517 subscribers, most of them residential, and an installed capacity of 100 thousand kilowatts supported by the Piedras Blancas and Guadalupe I and II power plants. Today, the EPM Group has 37 hydroelectric plants (27 of EPM with 4,020 MW), with a capacity of 4,259 megawatts; three thermal plants with 488 MW; 56 solar self-generation systems with 22.6 MW and a solar park of 83 MW. For a net effective capacity of 4,853 MW.
Sixty-nine years ago, the water service reached 50,506 users who consumed 115 thousand cubic meters daily. Today, there are more than 1,409,000 users who consume an average of 580 thousand cubic meters of drinking water daily. At the same time, the water infrastructure at the time of EPM’s birth included the Santa Elena tank (the first one in Medellín), the Villa Hermosa plant (the first water treatment plant, still in operation) and the Piedras Blancas reservoir.
Today, EPM has 13 water treatment plants, three major reservoirs (La Fe, Piedras Blancas, Riogrande II and a smaller one called Abreo), 132 drinking water storage tanks and 4,484 kilometers of aqueduct networks.
In addition to the Aburrá Valley, EPM’s water reaches Rionegro and El Retiro (in eastern Antioquia) and, as the EPM Group, it extends its services with its subsidiaries Aguas Regionales, with operations in the municipalities of Apartadó, Carepa, Chigorodó, Mutatá and Turbo (Urabá subregion) and San Jerónimo, Santa Fe de Antioquia, Sopetrán and Olaya (western Antioquia subregion). Also in Malambo, Atlántico (Aguas de Malambo), and Quibdó, Chocó (Aguas del Atrato).
With seawater desalination in Antofagasta, Chile (Aguas Antofagasta) and water reuse in Mexico (TICSA). In these 69 years, the coverage of the sanitation and watershed care service allows the Company to have three wastewater treatment plants: San Fernando (Itagüí), Aguas Claras (Bello), El Retiro (Eastern Antioquia) and Tranvía (Rionegro) under construction.
In 1998, the natural gas network service debuted. The first user was located in the Laureles neighborhood of Medellín. After 26 years of work, EPM is the second largest natural gas distributor in the country, with a presence in 121 towns in 92 municipalities in Antioquia. From one connection at the beginning, today there are 8,583 kilometers of polyethylene networks and 88 kilometers of steel networks.
From the consumption of a pioneering user, today there are more than 1,400,000 clients, with an average consumption of 12 m3/month. In sustainable mobility, EPM has 12 natural gas vehicle (NGV) refueling stations with its own brand.
Innovation has been a constant at EPM, always with the community in mind, which inspires the Company’s management. From Prepaid Water and Energy services, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Compressed Natural Gas, Overhead Aqueducts, solar solutions, public charging stations for electric vehicles, or low-emission hydrogen pilot, the organization has advanced in these 69 years looking to the future, thinking about sustainability, environmental care, territorial development and people’s quality of life, with the higher purpose of contributing to the harmony of life for a better world.
2024-08-06 21:11:20