Mexico's KIO Secures 10-Year Data Center Power Deal with Celsia in Panama
May 25, 2026
Mexico's KIO Secures 10-Year Data Center Power Deal with Celsia in Panama
Mexico-based KIO Data Centers has signed a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Colombian energy company Celsia to secure electricity supply for its data center operations in Panama. The deal marks KIO's first disclosed data center PPA in the country, though financial terms and supply volume were not revealed.
The agreement provides "energy certainty" through a long-term planning horizon that mitigates exposure to market volatility while ensuring infrastructure readiness for high-density technology requirements tied to hyperscalers, artificial intelligence, and cloud services, KIO said in a statement. The company added that the partnership positions it as "one of the providers with the highest level of energy certainty in the region," guaranteeing customers power availability for the covered period.
The announcement comes amid surging demand for data center capacity across Latin America, driven by AI workloads and cloud expansion, which are placing increasing pressure on energy availability and grid planning. Without detailing generation sources, KIO also emphasized the sustainability and resilience components of the deal, aligning with its responsible growth and operational efficiency objectives.
Celsia, the energy arm of Grupo Argos based in Medellín, operates across the electricity value chain in Colombia and Central America, including renewable generation, gas-fired thermal backup, transmission, distribution, and commercialization. The company serves more than 1.3 million homes and businesses in Colombia alone. In Panama, Celsia has 38 customers through three hydro power plants in Chiriquí, two backup thermal plants in Colón, and one solar farm in Coclé, along with nine solar roofs and four charging stations. At the end of the first quarter, Celsia reported 2,231 MW of installed capacity, comprising 1,148 MW hydro, 590 MW solar PV, and 485 MW thermal, with consolidated revenue of 1.27 trillion Colombian pesos ($344 million), a 12.4% decline year-over-year.
Celsia recently said it expects total capital deployment of around 1.3 trillion Colombian pesos this year, including more than 1 trillion pesos for assets under management and 280 billion to 320 billion pesos in capex for its energy services business. According to CEO Ricardo Sierra, roughly 60% of capex will go to solar projects, 30% to transmission infrastructure, and 10% to natural gas initiatives. Outside Colombia, Celsia is targeting expansion mainly in Peru and Mexico, focusing on renewable generation and energy efficiency services.
KIO currently operates 18 data centers across Latin America, including 12 in Mexico—six in the Mexico City metropolitan area, two in Querétaro, two in Monterrey, and one each in Hermosillo and Mérida. The company also has two facilities in Colombia, two in Guatemala, and one each in Panama and the Dominican Republic. Its latest regional expansion was the launch of a second facility in Guatemala, a project with 2 MW of IT load that KIO said would quadruple the country's installed data center capacity. In September last year, KIO announced plans to invest $400 million to expand its footprint across existing markets. More recently, the company started construction of a new Mexican facility, MEX8, in Mexico City, with an estimated capex of $70 million, expected to deliver 4 MW of capacity and designed under international standards and energy efficiency criteria, operating with 79% renewable energy.
KIO has been owned since 2021 by infrastructure investment fund I Squared Capital, which recently acquired Brazilian operator Elea Data Centers.
Source: bnamericas
