At 10 a.m. on June 16, 2025, at a signing ceremony held in Santiago, the capital of Chile, PowerChina Chile officially signed two EPC contracts for key power grid upgrades with Chilean power transmission giant Transelec, power distribution leader CGE and French energy group Engie. This is another breakthrough made by Chinese enterprises in the field of power construction in Chile, marking that the cooperation between China and intelligent sources has entered a new stage of in-depth collaboration.
Two major technical highlights of the bid
The G15 500 kV substation expansion project is located in the Antofagasta region of northern Chile, including two sub-projects of Parinas substation OC01 and OC02. The project will use China's self-developed intelligent gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), whose fault self-diagnosis system can improve O&M efficiency by 40%. Of particular note is that the station will build three new 500 kV outgoing corridors, directly connecting to the 1.2GW PV cluster under construction in the region, which is expected to consume an additional 1.8 billion kWh of clean electricity per year after operation, equivalent to a reduction of 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions.
The transformation of the 220 kV substation in the G04 bid section focuses on the upgrading of the power grid in central and northern Chile, covering the intelligent transformation of the two hub substations in San Juan and Algarrobal. The project will deploy PowerChina's original "digital twin operation and maintenance system" to realize real-time monitoring of equipment status through 1,280 IoT sensors, shortening the response time of power grid faults from hours to minutes. The capacity of the renovated substation will be increased by 60%, effectively alleviating the electricity shortage in the Valparaiso region.
The strategic implications are far-reaching
Both projects are part of the National Grid Modernization Plan 2020-2030, led by Chile's National Electricity Coordination Agency (CEN), with a total investment of US$380 million. With its technical accumulation in the field of UHV, PowerChina has successfully defeated international competitors such as Hitachi Energy and Siemens, and its proposal of "Chinese Standard Localized Procurement" has been highly recognized by Chile - 35% of the key equipment of the project will be produced in Chile, creating more than 600 jobs.
This cooperation is a milestone: on the one hand, the participation of Engie as a European energy giant has formed a new model of tripartite cooperation between China, Chile and Europe; On the other hand, this is PowerChina's second national power grid project after undertaking the construction of Chile's 26 bid 500 kV power transmission and transformation project in 2022, proving that Chinese enterprises have been deeply embedded in Chile's energy transition process. According to Chile's Ministry of Energy, seven of the 12 large-scale renewable energy grid projects currently under construction are being built by Chinese companies.
As Chile plans to achieve 100% clean power system by 2040, the two projects won by PowerChina will become important support points. The project is expected to start construction in the third quarter of 2025 and put into operation in 2027, which will significantly increase the transmission capacity of Chile's North-South Energy Corridor and provide stable power guarantee for national strategic industries such as lithium mine development and green hydrogen production. This is not only an upgrade of infrastructure, but also a vivid practice of the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.(This article is from the official website of Seetao www.seetao.com. Reprinting without permission is strictly prohibited. Please indicate Seetao.com + original link when reprinting) Seetao.com Strategy Column Editor/Sun Fengjuan
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