Roundup: Energy projects, cable undergrounding bill, grid capacity update, Impsa sale

Energy projects

Two electric power projects involving combined investment of more than US$100mn were submitted for environmental review in Chile in recent days.

The bigger of the two is a US$95mn energy storage project planned for Atacama region.

Branded Alianza and due to enter the construction phase in September 2025, the initiative is planned by Orion Power and involves installing 90MW of battery storage capacity.

This is the second time Alianza has entered the system, after review agency SEA ended processing early, citing missing information.

The smaller is a US$12mn overhaul and capacity increase of 380kW run-of-the-river hydropower plant Los Maquis in Aysén region, which has been out of service for around 30 years. 

Planned by Saesa, the objectives are raising capacity to 1MW to substitute fossil fuel generation and support greater electrification in the district of Chile Chico, particularly by spurring penetration of electric heating units, in turn reducing the burning of wood and associated air pollution.

Work is expected to get underway on the project in October 2025 and the plant would connect to the distribution network.

Overhead cables

Chilean senators submitted for discussion a bill that would make burying overhead power and telecommunications cables mandatory.

The move – which would involve clearing significant financial feasibility hurdles – comes after a windstorm crippled the power distribution network in swathes of the country this year, leading for calls to make it more resilient.

Concession-holders and service providers would have up to four years to bury 100% of cables in densely populated areas. For rural areas, the window is 10 years.

The draft states that temporary and permanent exemptions could be granted in the event that burial is not technically or economically viable, or where it is not recommended for geological or environmental reasons, or where work could damage conservation areas.

The cost of the work would be shouldered by companies, which could not transfer this to billpayers, it states.

Today, distributors are paid a regulated rate chiefly to maintain and reinstate services and bill end-users. 

In many urban areas, multiple cables, like bundles of ragged spaghetti, are draped between poles. 

Retroactively burying cables can cost multiple millions of dollars per kilometer. 

Mater

Argentina has amended a database – known as Anexo 3 – containing available capacity for transmission priority dispatch.

The document is available on the website of wholesale power market administrator Cammesa.

Cammesa has a transmission priority dispatch capacity auction underway, corresponding to 3Q24. Applications are due October 25 and capacity assignment scheduled for November 25.

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. 

A lack of available spare transmission capacity is a headwind for continued deployment of utility-scale wind and solar parks in Argentina. 

Impsa

Argentina’s federal government and Mendoza province launched a process to sell their shares in Mendoza energy infrastructure company Impsa.

Bids are due by October 31, according to a notice in the federal government’s official gazette. Impsa has a debt burden of around US$500mn.

Mendoza’s congress recently authorized the transfer of the province’s shares in the company.

The federal government controls 63.7% of the company and Mendoza 21.2%, while creditors hold 9.78% and the Pescarmona founding family 5.26%.

More information can be obtained here.