Roundup: Chile transmission bids, Argentine renewables construction

Bids from eight parties were opened in Chile’s first transmission auction of 2024.

Ten had originally sought the work.

The process corresponds to decrees No. 4/2024 and No. 200/2022 and transmission regulation article No. 157. It comprises projects being auctioned for the first time along with some that have previously been put on the auction block. Total investment is estimated at US$224mn.

Bids were opened from Andaluza de Montajes Eléctricos y Telefónicos Agencia en Chile, Bac Ingenieros, Changshu Fengfan Power Equipment, Conexión Kimal Lo Aguirre, Elecnor Chile, Monlux Chile, Tucapel Energía and Powerchina Agencia Chile.

However, Tucapel Energía did not pass the administrative offer evaluation phase for one of the two projects it had sought, while Quantum Energy did not advance past the administrative evaluation phase for the project it bid for. 

Award decisions are due to be published November 22. 

Three other transmission auction processes are underway.

Argentine power project

Argentine steel company ArcelorMittal Acindar and local construction, power and hydrocarbons player Petroquímica Comodoro Rivadavia (PCR) said that, under a strategic partnership, they will build a second wind farm and expand an existing asset.

The central project is a wind farm in Buenos Aires province with a first phase involving 180MW, while the expansion initiative involves adding an 18MW solar plant to the operating 113MW San Luis province wind park San Luis Norte.

The solar initiative, the companies said in a joint statement, will create the country’s first hybrid renewables complex.

Output from the new wind and solar capacity will power Acindar’s steel plants amid a push to decarbonize production.

"With this new investment we reaffirm our commitment to the objective of reducing by 30% our carbon footprint by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050," Acindar CEO Federico Amos said.

For the new wind park, in a context of transmission congestion, grid work is planned at two transformer stations to boost capacity along the corridor of the 500kV line that links Bahía Blanca city with Buenos Aires city, both in Buenos Aires province.

Several years ago, the companies formed renewables developer Generación Eléctrica Argentina Renovable I, or GEAR as it is known.

GEAR has secured 153MW transmission priority dispatch capacity for San Luis Norte.

Priority dispatch capacity is sought by renewables projects seeking to participate in the Mater term market, where the likes of renewables generators sell output to offtakers such as manufacturers.