Legal Alert: Bill to Promote Energy Storage in Chile

December 15, 2021 / By Felipe Bahamondez, Diego Peña and Roberta Andreani

In the context of the transformation of the energy matrix and the promotion of the rational and efficient use of energy resources, the Government recently submitted to Congress a bill on the promotion of energy storage.

The purpose of the bill are (1) to encourage the participation of renewable energies in the electricity matrix by promoting storage technologies, (2) to enable the efficient connection of renewable generation-consumption systems with the electricity system, (3) to encourage the sale of electric vehicles through exemptions to vehicle permits and enabling this type of vehicles to participate in the electricity market.

To achieve the above, the project intends to amend the General Law of Electric Services, among which it is important to highlight those that point to the possibility that storage systems and other facilities, to inject energy to the electric system. Likewise, these amendments imply that these systems will be subject to the coordination of the National Electric Coordinator and may participate in energy transfers.

It also considers the obligation of distribution companies to allow the connection to their facilities of storage systems whose surplus power does not exceed 9,000 kilowatts, just as it was already established for distributed generation facilities.

With respect to electric vehicles, the bill considers the possibility for end users subject to pricing who have storage systems, to inject the energy they store into the distribution network. This includes storage systems that are part of an electric vehicle.

In the bill, generation-consumption systems are defined as productive infrastructure for purposes such as hydrogen production or water desalination, with its own renewable generation capacity, which is connected to the electricity system through a single connection point and that can withdraw energy from the electricity system through a supplier or inject its surplus into the system.  The provisions corresponding to generating plants and final customers not subject to price regulation will be applicable to these systems. In turn, the charges linked to final customers will only be based on the energy and power withdrawn and not on the self-supplied energy and power.

The bill is in the first constitutional stage and the Government has given it urgency.

Contacts For more information, please contact: Felipe Bahamondez Partner fbahamondez@dlapiper.cl

* This report provides general information on certain legal or commercial issues in Chile, and is not intended to analyze in detail the matters contained herein, nor is it intended to provide particular legal advice on such matters. The reader is advised to seek legal advice before making any decision regarding the matters contained in this report. This report may not be reproduced by any means or in any part without the prior consent of DLA Piper Chile.