On July 10, 2023, the Chilean Government submitted to Congress a bill entitled "Energy Transition: Electric Transmission as an enabling sector" which amends the Decree with Force of Law No. 4/2018 of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Reconstruction, corresponding to the General Law of Electric Services, in matters of energy transition, and seeks to position electric transmission as an enabling sector for carbon neutrality (hereinafter the "Bill").

According to the Bill's Message, the objective is to accelerate the participation of renewable and clean energies in the national energy matrix, through a greater deployment of electricity transmission infrastructure, which will allow compliance with the climate and environmental goals contained in the Framework Law on Climate Change, through the following pillars:

• Electricity sector and climate change;
• Efficient development of transmission works; and
• Promotion of competition and encouragement of storage.

The first pillar, "Electricity sector and climate change", seeks to facilitate efficient planning of electricity transmission works by improving the following areas: a) energy planning and territorial impact; b) enabling infrastructure for the energy transition; and c) operation of a low-emission electricity system. At a deeper level, it reformulates the long-term energy planning process, highlighting its territorial nature, through the incorporation and reinforcement of national and regional planning instruments; modifies the functions of the National Electrical Coordinator and the Ministry of Energy; makes the mechanisms for the execution of urgent expansion works more flexible; and reassigns extraordinary tariff revenues in response to the existence of stress situations in the electricity system. This last measure is urgent, since it establishes new alternatives for the reallocation of tariff revenues, taking care of the distortions generated by congestion incomes, which are caused by the delay in the development of the transmission works necessary to the transmission of the renewable energies generated in the North of the country to the Central and South zone.

The second pillar, "Efficient development of transmission works", aims to improve the performance of tender processes and reduce conflicts in the development of expansion works. In greater detail, it establishes the duty of the owners of the expansion works to carry out the bidding processes and development of the works; it incorporates a mechanism for reviewing the value of the investment in the event of early termination of the contract awarded for the execution of the work, for justified reasons; and establishes a transitory mechanism for reviewing the value of the investment awarded for those works already awarded and that are currently paralyzed, whose contracts have been terminated early.

The third pillar, "Promotion of competition and encouragement of storage", seeks to allow companies to operate in different segments; it allows transmission companies to operate storage systems, and proposes to call for an international tender to achieve a large-scale storage system that will mobilizean investment of close to US$ 2 billion, to be operational in the electrical system before 2026. These measures will make it possible to deal with the high variability in the generation of solar and wind power plants, making it possible to reduce the generation of energy with fossil fuels.

Additionally, the Bill contains measures that consider expediting the issuance of technical standards of the National Energy Commission when non-substantive and urgent modifications are required; incorporates incentives for compliance with electricity supply contracts for regulated customers; clears uncertainties regarding the participation of energy storage systems in the transmission sector; modifies the definition of peak power; and adjusts the procedure for the determination of preliminary time slots. 

Finally, the Bill includes a sole article that amends the General Law of Electric Services and nine transitory provisions.

Access source here.