DELSUR, faithful to its purpose of contributing to the harmony of life for a better world, and under the guidelines of water resources and biodiversity management of the EPM group's Climate Strategy, seeks to promote operations with low greenhouse gas emissions, carrying out actions on biodiversity conservation in the distribution and commercialization of electricity.

On this occasion the articulation of efforts in conjunction with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), developing the Biodiversity Study called: "Evaluation of the risk of collision and electrocution of wildlife species in power distribution lines and measures for their mitigation". The document becomes a key instrument to identify and define measures for the conservation of local biodiversity, and whose implementation can have a positive impact on the reduction of interruptions in the electric service in its area of operation, improving the quality of service to users.

In the year 2022, DELSUR was one of the 17 applicants selected in Central America and the Dominican Republic, out of an initial total of 143 candidates of the GIZ Green Ideas program. The application to the competition sought to generate relevant and current information on the behavior of wildlife species that interact with the power grid in order to make better decisions regarding grid investments. The study was carried out in 2023 and the results are presented today.

For the biodiversity study, Biosistemas was hired to carry out the methodological design, collection and analysis of the information that allowed characterizing the species and their behaviors associated with grid failures. This initiative represents an important innovation for the electricity sector, which seeks the integration of strategies oriented to biodiversity conservation within the business model, with the primary purpose of reducing non-technical failures in the power grid, minimizing the associated environmental impact and at the same time improving the indicators of frequency and duration of failures.

The study represents the first effort of its kind carried out by DELSUR and will provide the company with relevant information to guide future and current investments in the power grid, as well as to improve processes related to the implementation of technologies that favor biodiversity conservation in the power grid, such as the protected cable or profauna cable.

In addition, as a follow-up of the results obtained, DELSUR will lead the formation of technical working groups with representatives from multiple sectors and government. These roundtables will focus on the analysis of the conclusions of the study, for the construction of proposals to trigger actions aimed at the conservation of biodiversity from the current regulatory perspective, considering the addition of the ecosystem approach in the standard instruments that currently govern the construction of networks and associated maintenance processes.

Translated by: A.M