How to avoid errors in calculating electricity rates

This is an automated translation of the original release published in Spanish.

PRESS RELEASE from Acen
October 20, 2025

The methodological error in calculating energy costs, which accounts for approximately 70% of electricity bills, affects not only residential customers but also thousands of SMEs that are required to contract their supply with distribution companies. This is because the law stipulates that all consumers with a connected capacity of up to 300 kW are regulated customers.

In addition to the overpayments resulting from the methodological error these SMEs must address, which will continue until at least January 2026, there is the damage caused by the unsolicited rate freeze. The latter "ultimately entailed significant increases in electricity bills to return to generating companies the unpaid amounts during the years rates were frozen, plus interest, which were not agreed upon by those who must pay, but by the sector authorities," commented Eduardo Andrade, executive secretary of the Chilean Association of Energy Marketers (ACEN).

This has resulted, he added, not only in significant costs, but also in a material impossibility of projecting electricity costs for these tens of thousands of SMEs, often a significant part of their expenditure structure, and, therefore, in difficulties in making decisions regarding production levels and other issues.

Andrade emphasized that "it is therefore appropriate to draw a parallel between this reality and the advantages that the free market has represented for those SMEs that have the ability to freely contract their electricity supply with third parties other than distribution companies. These SMEs, which today are those with a connected capacity greater than 300 kW, have had, from the moment they switched suppliers, a constant and predictable energy cost—around 70% of their total bill—with simple contracts and simple, easy-to-understand indexation formulas, which are generally adjusted only by the CPI, unlike the tariff schedules defined in regulations, which have become so complex that even the relevant authorities are unable to understand them."

According to the executive secretary, the energy costs paid by SMEs participating in the free market are also lower than those paid by SMEs in the regulated market. These SMEs also have access to better quality commercial service and, often, the provision of other services (energy efficiency, distributed generation, technical support, etc.).

Adding to this the point made regarding the potential impact of this methodological error on the increase in the value of the UF, Andrade emphasized that "it is necessary to call on the authorities to consider moving decisively toward a broader free market, which would significantly reduce the direct effects of such an error on electricity bills and all the indirect effects on expenses adjusted via the UF, regardless of their magnitude."