84 bidders in Chile’s power generation tender

The largest auction of electricity supply contracts in Chile’s history attracted a total of 84 bids for the supply of 12,430 gigawatt-hours a year, a third of supply to regulated consumers. The winners of the auction will be announced on August 17.

Chile has the third most expensive power in South America, behind Guyana and Uruguay. To reduce prices, the country is trying to increase its generating capacity through a series of auctions. Chile has targeted a 20 to 25 percent reduction in prices by 2021. 

The last auction in October achieved a 40 percent reduction of the energy price ($79.3 MW/h) compared to the previous auction.

According to sources, executive secretary Andres Romero said:

"This is historic. It is the largest auction in our country and the one that has generated most interest from bidders," Romero told reporters. "Competition is good news because it means we can reach our objective of lowering electricity costs for Chilean families and businesses by 20 to 25 percent by 2020."

 Carlos Finat, president of Chile’s renewable association commented:

"Chile’s auctions have been attracting a lot of interest from renewable energy companies, and new players have entered the country’s market."

This will be the first time that a participating project will be able to sell energy on both Chile’s central-south and northern systems.