Coal power plant in La Guajira, Colombia. Approximate location 11.2622, -73.4156.
CoalLa GuajiraColombiasubcritical
Termoguajira power station is a 275 MW coal power station in La Guajira, Colombia. It is operated by Gecelca SAESP. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 344k homes (estimated). It ranks #24 of 44 Colombia power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1985, it is around 41 years old — long-established. In context, coal supplies about 6.1% of Colombia's electricity; the national grid averages 187 gCO₂/kWh (77.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1075562.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 275 MW for Termoguajira power station, but it is not used as the public primary value until scope is verified (unit vs operating vs installed/project total).
Capacity claim grade: A2_MEDIUM_REVIEW - recommended action: manual_source_check - confidence: medium. This follows a claim-based data model: value + scope + source + confidence, rather than silently overwriting records.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000101770); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 275 MW, Termoguajira power station is below the median coal plant in Colombia (335 MW). Technically it is described as subcritical. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Gecelca SAESP.
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 11.3°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #7 largest coal power plant of 9 in Colombia by capacity.
Colombia has 9 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 3,578 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 11.2622, -73.4156 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Termoguajira power station is a 275 MW source-record coal power plant in La Guajira, Colombia, commissioned in 1985.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 344,142 homes (estimated).
Termoguajira power station is operated by Gecelca SAESP.
