The Minister of Energy, Juan Carlos Jobet, announced the creation of an Independent Advisory Commission that will be in charge of contributing with proposals to define a flexibility route for the national electricity system, with the purpose of advancing towards a strategy on this issue.
Chilean Cigre Committee
in Santiago.

According to the authority, the advisory committee will be made up of Hugh Rudnick, director of Systep and emeritus academic of the Catholic University; Jorge Moreno, founding partner of the consulting firm Inodú; Renato Agurto, director of Synex, and Daniel Olivares, ICSI researcher at the Catholic University.

“The idea is that in three months they, together with the Ministry’s teams, will propose to us the route to incorporate greater flexibility into the system,” Jobet said.

The minister said that this commission will allow “complementing the technical knowledge that is in the Ministry and in the CNE and in the National Electric Coordinator, with the opinion of actors of the sector, who are experts in its operation and who have an independent vision, in order to generate the instances so that all the actors involved can give their opinion and help us so that the solution we arrive at, with their proposal, is the best possible”.

Strategy

Jobet stated that one of the objectives to advance in flexibility is to focus on a strategy, rather than on a bill on the matter. “Any change in this must be done gradually. At some point there was talk of making a Flexibility Law and I want to be emphatic that it seems to us that more than a Flexibility Law, what we have to think about is a flexibility strategy, although we do not rule out making legal changes, if required.”

He explained that this implies analyzing options such as changes in operating protocols of the National Electric Coordinator, as well as regulatory modifications, adding that the strategy must be technology neutral.

The minister indicated that another objective of this initiative is to have cost-efficient technologies that provide security to the operation of the electricity system.

CNE

The seminar was also attended by José Venegas, executive secretary of the National Energy Commission (CNE), who pointed out that flexibility in the electricity sector must be applied gradually, so that the concept of flexibility implies a strategy “that is compatible with market balances and the possibility for all agents to react to regulatory changes”.

In his opinion, the growing entry of variable renewable energy implies a greater challenge to the reaction of generation in the local electricity system, so he stated that the flexibility strategy must be careful regarding the issues of incentives and remuneration.

Venegas said that an important issue is also the sufficiency of power and Complementary Services, so the CNE’s flexibility must be compatible with technological changes.