SERC Chile seminar addresses the challenges and advances of energy interconnection in Latin America

PRESS RELEASE from SERC
October 22, 2024

This is an automated translation of the press release issued in Spanish

• SERC Chile led an important international seminar where the technical, political and economic challenges to advance the path towards the energy transition in the region were discussed and analyzed.
• Energy Minister Diego Pardow explained the stages of interconnection that Chile is in with Peru and Bolivia. “Together with the Inter-American Development Bank, in the case of Peru, we are updating the costs of the project that makes more sense from the first step of the interconnection and in the case of Bolivia, limiting the initiative to a pre-feasibility stage.”

Santiago de Chile. October 22, 2024. How is energy interconnection in Latin America progressing? At the “International Seminar on Energy Interconnection in Latin America: Technical, Political and Economic Challenges”, held by Solar Energy Research Center (SERC Chile), representatives of the sector met with the aim of reducing variability and uncertainty to begin providing bilateral security and stability.

The meeting was held in the auditorium of the University of Concepción in Santiago de Chile, a setting that allowed for the creation of key alliances in academia, industry and the public sector to optimize the use of abundant renewable energy resources, strengthen resilience to fluctuations in demand and supply, and enable the export of green hydrogen and derivatives.

The Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow, gave the welcome remarks at the meeting, stressing the need to create an interconnection between Latin American countries to advance the energy transition: “For Chile, energy interconnection has always been a priority. (...) As a cabinet, we had to take up previous work and reinforce that previous work, actively participating in the initiatives of CESUR and CINEA, which are the regional and subregional organizations that allow us to organize this discussion.”

In this regard, after the meeting, the Secretary of State explained the stages of interconnection in which Chile is with Peru and Bolivia. “Together with the Inter-American Development Bank, in the case of Peru, we are updating the costs of the project that makes more sense from the first step of the interconnection and in the case of Bolivia, limiting the initiative to a pre-feasibility stage still.”

For his part, the director of SERC Chile, Rodrigo Palma , indicated that the seminar sought to "generate evidence and update this discussion with the results that SERC Chile has generated around the topic and bring this evidence to decision makers, so that there is more information."

Technical, political and economic challenges of interconnection

Dr. Claudia Rahmann Zúñiga, director of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile, and former director of SERC Chile, who was a speaker, explained the potential of solar energy development during her talk “Technical challenges of a regional interconnection in Latin America.”

“At a regional level, by the end of 2023 we had 49 gigawatts installed, mainly photovoltaic, but the potential we have in South America is 33,000 gigawatts. This means that we have had a gigantic development of renewable energies, but we must use all the potential we have to evolve this renewable energy strategy at a regional level,” Rahmann Zúñiga explained.

The event was attended by Diego Pardow, Minister of Energy, Iván Morán, SEREMI of Energy; Dr. Marcela Angulo González, Director of the University of Concepción-Santiago Unit; Dr. Marcelo Pérez Leiva, Associate Professor at the Federico Santa María Technical University and Researcher at SERC Chile; Master Andrés Rebolledo Smitmans, Executive Secretary of the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE); Dr. Gerardo Blanco Bogado, Associate Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso; Master Javier Moreno Jorquera, Economist at the Central Bank of Chile; and Dr. Claudio Agostini González, Associate Professor at the Adolfo Ibáñez University and Principal Researcher at SERC Chile.