Congress to vote on transmission bill Oct.29

Chile's lower house will vote on a proposal by energy minister Jorge Rodriguez to regulate electricity transmission payments on October 29, newspaper Estrategia quoted the president of lower house energy and mines commission, Cristian Leay, as saying. The commission approved the proposal earlier this month. "I think we have put together a good law, which improves the whole transmission system and gives guarantees for future investments," Leay said. However, some commission members feel the government is trying to push the bill through congress too quickly without sufficient debate on all issues. The reason is that the government wants to reduce the opportunity for introducing new elements, newspaper El Diario quoted anonymous officials as saying. Nevertheless, companies have waited more than two years for the new transmission law to be passed and the government is right to speed up the process, El Diario quoted the president of Region VIII distributor Innergy, Carlos Rocca, as saying. The energy minister's proposal - based on recommendations by central grid (SIC) generators Endesa, Colbun and AES Gener - is to split transmission payments 80:20 between generators and consumers in the high-demand Santiago area, and 70:30 to the north and south.