Enel Green Power Chile has started construction on a solar-plus-storage project with a 67MW battery energy storage system (BESS).
The Don Humberto Park project is in the Metropolitan region, where the capital Santiago is, and will combine 80MW of PV with a 67MW BESS although a commercial operation date (COD) has not been provided. Enel Green Power is part of the Italy-headquartered oil and gas producer and utility Enel.
An energy storage capacity (MWh) figure was not given either but projects in Chile are likely to have a duration of 4-5 hours meaning the Don Humberto BESS could have 268-335MWh of energy storage capacity.
The 4-5 hour duration is because BESS projects in Chile will primarily be monetised through capacity market payments, balancing out regional differences in supply and demand, and shifting solar PV production into the evening.
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A local source told Energy-Storage.news that four-hour duration energy storage projects will receive 95% of the headline tariff for capacity market contracts, much higher than in the UK where they only receive 46%.
Our source added that the Chilean electricity market has the second-widest price spreads in the world, second only to ERCOT, Texas (where the energy storage market is also ballooning).
Chile is seeking multiple gigawatts of energy storage to be deployed before the end of the decade, to which end it passed a bill late last year to facilitate energy storage activity in the country’s electricity market.
However, the regulatory process to specify the norms and directives for energy storage to operate in the National Electrical System’s (SEN) capacity market and ancillary service market are still to be fully fleshed out, but final rules are set to come in later this year.
Alongside Enel, major actors in the country’s burgeoning energy storage market include AES, which recently turned on a 560MWh BESS, and developer Colbun which commissioned the first of an 800MW pipeline late last year.
Returning for the second edition in Santiago, Chile, the Energy Storage Summit Latin America will explore opportunities in countries such as Chile, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Join Solar Media on October 17-18 to meet with investors, policy makers, developers, utilities, network operators, technology providers, EPCs, consultants, law firms and more to make sure you are a part of the rapidly evolving storage landscape in Latin America.
