For the fifth time, the tender for the expansion works of the 66 kV Charrúa-Chillán line, for US$ 6,393,909, failed, after yesterday it was confirmed that it was declared void, which again leaves a key project for transmission adrift. electricity in the region, since the infrastructure of this line that feeds Chillán and the southeastern area of the region is already overwhelmed, becoming a true bottleneck that puts the stability of supply at risk in periods of high demand and keeps paralyzed hundreds of investment projects due to not having the technical feasibility of connection to the electrical grid.
The same fate befell the tender for the works to increase the capacity of the 66 kV Monterrico-Cocharcas line, for US$ 892,658.
As will be remembered, last November the National Electrical Coordinator made the call for international public (re)bidding for the award of the construction of five transmission expansion works in the country, corresponding to the decrees of 2018 and 2019, among them , Charrúa-Chillán and Monterrico-Cocharcas.
At that time, the manager of Copelec, Patricio Lagos, criticized the decision to tender these works for the fifth time and anticipated a resounding failure, both due to technical and economic factors. In fact, he maintained that the reference value published in the tender is the same of the first tender in 2019. Lagos also warned that this path meant, in practice, a delay in the completion of this project that, in the last tender, the company that awarded it abandoned the works in 2022 due to cost increases .
And although CGE would be willing to address the expansion of the Charrúa-Chillán line – which it owns – as explained by the company in the meeting held by companies in the sector with the Minister of Energy, Diego Pardow, during his visit to Chillán in May 2023, it would do so for three or four times the reference value, industry sources estimate.
Upon learning of the failure of this fifth tender, Lagos stated that “there is no will for the company that owns the facilities to develop the project.”
“The ideal scenario would be for the owner of the facility to take it over, take charge, and be able to execute it without having to go through a centralized planning process like the expansion plan. Therefore, given the commitment made in May of last year, it is time to fulfill that commitment. Of course, the Energy Transition Law is missing here, which is still in Congress, where these special transmission sections are included,” stated the executive, who emphasized that “the centralized planning mechanism, via expansion plans, failed in Ñuble.” .
“Another key aspect is that this commitment is fulfilled in the shortest time possible; which is another commitment that exists between CGE and the Minister of Energy, which was what was pointed out in the meeting held in Chillán. Maybe there is a strategy on the part of the company, of not applying to be assigned directly, but there also has to be a sense of urgency, we have to see that this is done as soon as possible, there is no more time, there are projects real estate, complete villas that do not have positive feasibility. The responsibility lies with the political authority and CGE. “Five tenders for a single work is immeasurable, what do we say to the investors, to the workers?” added the Copelec manager.
Direct hire
Precisely, the Undersecretary of Energy, Luis Felipe Ramos, visited the region yesterday, a day in which he held meetings with the presidential delegate, Anwar Farrán, and with the regional governor.
Asked about this, Ramos stated that “what we are evaluating at this moment and that would be the best possible option, is the direct award, because given that there have been more than two bidding processes, the possibility that it can be awarded must be evaluated. the work directly, which would also allow us to do it faster. “That is one of the alternatives that we are evaluating.”
The undersecretary argued that this mechanism allows us to find the company that offers the best conditions, taking into account the experience of previous bidding processes. However, he declined to say whether CGE could take charge of the work. What he did assure is that in the coming weeks there should be a decision by the National Energy Commission and the National Electrical Coordinator on the path forward.
However, Ramos commented, “there are other measures that are also advancing in parallel, but they are of a different nature and with different times. One is the Electric Transmission Law project that establishes changes to the transmission regime, what is sought in very summary terms, is to have tenders that are faster, but also more effective, that manage to reach awards, along with other measures that “They have made commitments regarding the Ñuble Plan, such as, for example, the energy demand study and the Open Season that is being organized for calls for urgent works.”
Along the same lines, the regional governor, Óscar Crisóstomo, reiterated, as he had done on previous occasions, the need to award these works directly. He pointed out that, taking advantage of the visit of the undersecretary, “we have raised the need to advance with greater dynamism in the transmission of energy in our region; We express our concern that, for the fifth time, the tender for the Charrúa-Chillán line and the Monterrico-Cocharcas line was declared void; strategic lines for our region that allow us to generate conditions for productive and economic development.”
At the same time, he said that “we ask the undersecretary to urgently activate the direct contracting of these works, since it is not possible that, in its fifth tender, it will once again be deserted.”
On the other hand, Crisóstomo showed his concern about the Energy Transition Law, because the undersecretary told him that it is detained in Congress. “We want to ask the parliamentarians of the area to expedite all the efforts so that this project can be completed quickly, as was the commitment that had been made last year. It should have been enacted in April, but the times we are seeing, unfortunately, “They do not conform to this commitment, that is why we ask all our parliamentarians to make this possible and in April this project is underway.”
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