By Editorial Desk, EL TIEMPO
As the specter of the El Niño weather phenomenon looms over Colombia, threatening the stability of the national interconnected power system, the government and energy experts are locked in a heated debate. At the heart of the controversy is a proposal to shift the country’s official clock by one hour—a measure reminiscent of the 1990s energy crisis—designed to mitigate peak electricity demand. While proponents argue that this simple time adjustment could save the nation from blackouts, critics, including renowned meteorologists, dismiss the idea as geographically illiterate and technically ineffective.
The Genesis of the Proposal
The suggestion to modify the time zone was brought back into the public eye by Alejandro Arbeláez, the manager of the Hidroituango project. His proposal is straightforward in theory: by moving the clocks forward by one hour during the peak intensity of the dry season, the country could leverage an additional hour of natural daylight at the end of the workday.
The technical goal is to alleviate the pressure on the national grid during the "critical window," defined as the hours between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. In this interval, household and industrial energy consumption reaches its zenith. By shifting the clock, officials believe they can flatten the demand curve, thereby preserving the water levels in hydroelectric reservoirs, which are currently under stress due to the prolonged dry weather associated with El Niño.
To formalize this, the proposal includes the creation of a technical committee tasked with evaluating various contingency measures to prevent a return to the dark days of nationwide rationing.
A Brief Chronology of Colombia’s Relationship with Time
To understand the current debate, one must look at the history of Colombia’s energy policies. The term "Hora Gaviria" (Gaviria Hour) is etched into the collective memory of Colombians, named after former President César Gaviria, who implemented a mandatory time shift during the 1992 energy crisis.
- 1992: Faced with a severe drought that depleted the nation’s hydroelectric capacity, the government enforced a time shift to reduce lighting consumption. The measure was accompanied by strict rationing schedules.
- 2024-2025: As climate change intensified, the government began re-evaluating long-term infrastructure resilience, but the immediate threat of El Niño in 2026 pushed the discussion back to short-term fixes.
- July 2026: The management of Hidroituango officially floated the idea of reintroducing a time shift, triggering an immediate and polarized response from the public and experts alike.
The Geographical Reality: Why Experts Are Skeptical
The primary opposition to the proposal comes from the scientific community, most notably the prominent meteorologist Max Henríquez. His critique is not based on policy, but on fundamental physics and geography.
The Equatorial Factor
Henríquez has been vocal on social media, dismissing the initiative as an exercise in "provincialism." The core of his argument lies in Colombia’s proximity to the equator. Unlike temperate countries, such as Denmark or those in the North American region, where the number of daylight hours fluctuates significantly between summer and winter—sometimes by as much as seven or eight hours—Colombia’s equatorial location results in negligible changes in day length throughout the year.
"Are we going to make fools of ourselves again by changing the time?" Henríquez wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "We are provincial when we don’t understand that we are not Denmark, but Cundinamarca. The hours of sunlight do not change by more than half an hour between the longest and shortest days in Colombia."
The Technical Limitation
From a meteorological standpoint, shifting the clock in a country where the sun rises and sets at nearly the same time regardless of the season does not provide the "extra" usable light that it does in higher latitudes. Therefore, the expected energy savings are, according to experts, statistically insignificant. The energy demand in Colombia is driven more by industrial activity and air conditioning usage than by the need for residential lighting.
The Demand for Structural Solutions
Beyond the skepticism regarding the time shift, there is a growing consensus that the government’s focus should be on systemic reforms rather than "cosmetic" time adjustments.
Increasing Energy Supply
Critics, including Henríquez, argue that the focus should be on expanding the country’s energy matrix. This includes:
- Diversification: Moving away from a heavy reliance on hydroelectric power, which makes the country highly vulnerable to climate cycles like El Niño.
- Infrastructure Investment: Speeding up the construction and maintenance of transmission lines and thermal backup plants.
- Efficiency: Implementing demand-side management programs that do not rely on changing the clocks.
The Cultural Shift
Henríquez suggests that instead of changing the time, the country needs a "soft rationing" approach—a structured, transparent way of reducing consumption that forces a cultural shift toward energy efficiency. He poses the question: "How will they handle water for human consumption? By changing the time too? They are looking for the drowning upstream."
Socio-Economic Implications
The debate is not merely technical; it has profound social implications. A change in the official time affects everything from public transportation schedules to school start times and television broadcasting.
- Public Safety: Critics point out that changing the hour could lead to early-morning commutes occurring in complete darkness, potentially increasing crime rates and traffic accidents.
- Economic Disruption: Industries that operate on international markets would face complications in synchronizing with global time zones, potentially creating friction in trade and financial services.
- Public Perception: There is a lingering trauma from the 1990s energy crisis. Proposing a time shift can be perceived by the public as a sign that the government has lost control of the energy sector, potentially triggering panic-buying or excessive hoarding of resources.
The Government’s Position
As of early July 2026, the Colombian government has not issued a formal decree regarding the change of time. The Ministry of Mines and Energy has acknowledged that the proposal is being studied by technical committees, but they have maintained a cautious tone. The official stance remains that all preventative measures are on the table, but any decision must be backed by rigorous data rather than legacy policy ideas.
The government is currently navigating a delicate balance: they must demonstrate that they are taking proactive steps to avoid a crisis while avoiding measures that could be perceived as ineffective or outdated by the public.
Conclusion: A Nation at a Crossroads
The "Gaviria Hour" debate serves as a mirror for the broader challenges facing Colombia. It highlights the tension between the immediate, often populist, desire for quick fixes and the long-term, complex necessity of infrastructure development.
While the idea of shifting the clock may seem like an easy way to signal action, the scientific consensus suggests that Colombia’s geography renders such efforts largely symbolic. If the country is to truly inoculate itself against the volatility of climate-driven energy shortages, it must look beyond the clock and toward a more robust, diversified, and technologically advanced energy grid.
For now, the clocks in Colombia remain synchronized to the current time, but the conversation has effectively reopened an old wound, forcing the nation to confront its historical dependence on hydroelectricity and its preparedness for a future defined by climate uncertainty. As the technical committees continue their deliberations, the public waits to see if the government will opt for a policy that offers the illusion of control or one that addresses the hard realities of the national energy system.
This article was developed with the support of AI tools and reviewed by a professional journalist to ensure accuracy and editorial standards.
