Government begins ENEL concession termination process and demands minimum replacement for the next 24 hours

This is a machine translation of the original release issued in Spanish

PRESS RELEASE from the Ministry of Energy of Chile
August 7, 2024

The Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow, announced tonight that the Government began the administrative process of expiration of the concession in the Metropolitan Region of the distribution company ENEL.

After a meeting held at the Senapred offices in which the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, and undersecretaries from different portfolios participated, Minister Pardow pointed out that, after President Gabriel Boric requested the Ministry of Energy to review the expiration, after the Senapred meeting, the start of this process was announced. “This administrative process has several stages. Its first stage is a requirement that functions as an ultimatum, where service conditions are set that must be met within a certain period of time,” Pardow explained.

According to the authority, this ultimatum contemplates that the company comply with the new recovery plan presented, which considers the connection of 20,000 clients during the day tomorrow, Thursday. “The two previous recovery plans were not fulfilled, there cannot be a third time. This plan will be segmented into 24-hour periods and if there are not 20,000 clients connected during 24 hours tomorrow, this procedure will move to its next administrative phase, which is the adversarial phase,” added the Secretary of State.

In addition, Pardow explained that the Government has also brought charges against the distribution company CGE for violating supply replacement regulations. “ CGE has some of the communes of the Metropolitan Region affected and, in particular, by the situation in O'Higgins, where the lack of rhythm in the recovery of clients is also a reason for extreme concern,” he concluded.

Regarding the statement issued by the ENEL company during the current day, Minister Pardow asserted that he did not take into account the call made earlier by President Boric. “Our concern is how Chilean consumers are going to be asked to pay their electricity bills when the electricity distribution service has been not only incompetent, but also indolent. So how are we going to ask the clients of our country who pay their bills every day, who regularly take care of their obligations, to face this situation when companies have evidently failed to do their part in this tacit agreement that we citizens have with companies,” he expressed.