Engie will invest 650 mdd in Chile for decarbonization

At Engie we continue to make progress in our decarbonization plan. The BESS Coya project will allow clean solar energy to be delivered to the grid at night, increasing the flexibility of dispatching solar plants to the National Electric System”.

Rosaline Corinthien, CEO of Engie Chile

Last week the company Engie Energía Chile announced the execution of the so-called BESS COYA project for the supply and acquisition of an energy storage system through batteries, which will be built in association with the company Sungrow Power Supply.

A few days after making said initiative public, the company announced the amount of investment that those works will contemplate and that are part of the firm’s plan to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy.

According to Engie Energía Chile, the budget for BESS COYA -whose entry into operation is estimated for February 2024- considered for the supply of the main equipment of the project together with the execution of the civil works of the project and installation, assembly and connection electricity of its main equipment; amounts to a total of approximately 200 million dollars.

“BESS COYA will allow Engie to store energy from its own renewable sources for subsequent injection into the SEN during daylight hours when marginal costs are determined by higher-cost generation technologies, avoiding -by the way- transmission restrictions” the company explained.

This, while the budget allocated to the project for the acquisition of the wind turbines necessary for the construction of the Lomas de Taltal Wind Farm, located in the Taltal commune, Antofagasta region amounts to an approximate amount of 450 million dollars.

“This project will have a total capacity of up to 342 MW and will be made up of 57 wind turbines with an individual capacity of 6 MW,” Engie said.

And he added that the renewable energy that this initiative will inject into the National Electric System (SEN) will be through a transmission line of approximately 20 kilometers, which will be interconnected at the Parinas Substation. In this way, the approximate investment of the company to continue developing renewable energy in the country reaches 650 million dollars.

The energy transition continues to set the tone for companies in the sector, which is why growth and investment strategies are focusing on renewable energies.

In addition to creating infrastructure for generation with clean sources, now it seeks to meet the need for storage. A few weeks ago, the Government promulgated the new storage law, which offers a more specific framework for the activity, allowing collection and avoiding the dumping of production.