Chile reports power investment uptick

Investment in power sector projects under construction in Chile increased in the third quarter of 2018 after falling for two consecutive quarters, according to a government report.

In its latest sector financial review, the national energy commission (CNE) highlights that 3Q18 investment hit US$975mn, just below the last recent quarterly high of US$988mn in 2Q17.

CNE mainly attributed the increase to the start of construction of some projects.

A separate commission bulletin reports that power generation projects under construction in January totaled 2,747MW, led by run-of-the-river, wind and diesel plants. The bulk of capacity is due online this year and next.

Net installed capacity last month totaled 23,294MW, of which 52.9% was thermo, 26.4% conventional hydro and 20.7% NCRE.

PERMITTING

Information from the country's environmental evaluation service (SEA) shows that year-to-date, 23 power projects have been submitted for a combined investment of US$610mn, the largest of which are the solar parks El Sauce (US$130mn, 100MW) and Alcones (US$120mn, 90MW).

Of the 23 projects, 15 are small-scale solar initiatives with investment from US$7mn to US$13.5mn that look to benefit from the government's small distributed generation (PMGD) promotion program for plants up to 9MW.

BNamericas is tracking over 1,400 sector projects in the early stage and under construction in Chile that are available here.