Chile-Peru transmission line planned
Peru: A planned new transmission line is expected to produce around $20 M in savings initially each year for Chilean and Peruvian grids, a figure that would edge up and eventually reach $50 M per year in savings.
Peru: A planned new transmission line is expected to produce around $20 M in savings initially each year for Chilean and Peruvian grids, a figure that would edge up and eventually reach $50 M per year in savings.
The figures are significant because it marks the first time a study for this kind of project has shows similar benefits for both nations. While Peru would initially benefit from cheaper surplus energy from Chile’s northern solar generators, from 2030 onwards the situation would balance out, with Peru dispatching at peak demand hours and Chile doing so when renewable generation is at its highest.
The line is expected to see a level of activity above 80 %. Even if a parallel and bigger 500 kV line were to be built between the two countries later down the line, activity would still sit above 65 %, according to the study.
Besides purely economic gains, regional interconnections bring added stability and reliability to power supply, while allowing more efficient allocation of resources, potentially bringing down prices and protecting the system against outages.
In the case of Chile, they can be built as a part of the national power grid as public works or through private investment. In the case of the former, the cost of the investment is ultimately included in consumers’ bills. In the second, a concession is established and the company that takes up the project is allowed certain profitability. For either of the two models to work, a framework for how the transport service will be remunerated by both systems must first be established.
Source: BN Americas