Weekly Market Analytics Chile Vol 11 Num 45

VOL 11 | NUM 45 | 30 May 2025

Power Markets Weekly

CHILE | 19 - 25 May 2025

Power Markets Weekly is a brief weekly review of the electric market operation in Chile, Mexico, Iberia, France and Italy. If you are not a subscriber, please feel free to subscribe here

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Curtailment rate hits new low for 2025

Global SEN operation

This week, the average price at Polpaico was USD 59.9/MWh, 9% lower than last week and 53% below the same week last year.

Marginal cost evolution in Polpaico during past years

Renewables increased their share in the energy mix, mainly driven by solar and run-of-river. Solar grew by 2.2 percentage points (pp) and run-of-river by 0.5 pp. Meanwhile, wind and dam reduced their shares by 0.5 pp and 0.9 pp, respectively. The decrease in thermal participation was led by gas, which dropped 1.5 pp.

The system’s maximum demand reached 11.4 GW on Friday at 12 PM, with wind, solar, and BESS contributing 49.3% of the output. The highest wind-solar-BESS participation occurred on Sunday at 1 PM, covering 71.1% of the 10.2 GW demand. The weekly demand was slightly lower (-0.1%), as we had one vacation day on 21 May.

Generation Mix

Variation

Power range by energy sources (average prices)

Learn more about this chart

Generation evolution

Geothermal

Cogeneration

Biomass

Coal

Gas

Oil

BESS

Dam

Run-of-river

Wind

PV Solar

CSP

The first decoupling of the week occurred on Tuesday during solar hours due to congestion on the 500 kV line Nueva Pan de Azúcar - Polpaico. A similar decoupling (caused by the same constraint) happened again on Thursday. These congestions left the northern zones with significantly lower prices than the rest of the system.

Additionally, the system decoupled multiple times from the Puerto Montt zone due to recurring congestion on the 220 kV lines Lastarria - Ciruelos and Charrúa - Santa Clara. On Thursday and Friday mornings, diesel power plants Quellón and Trapén were dispatched to meet demand, setting the week peak marginal price at USD 183.9/MWh on Friday at 10 AM in Puerto Montt.

Marginal cost evolution

Crucero
USD 57.4/MWh

D. de Almagro
USD 57.0/MWh

Pan de Azúcar
USD 57.8/MWh

Polpaico
USD 59.9/MWh

Charrúa
USD 58.4/MWh

Puerto Montt
USD 51.4/MWh

Solar and Wind production & BESS dispatch

Solar generation increased by 36.0 GWh (+13.1%) this week, with a system-wide average plant factor of 16.7%. The highest solar plant factor was observed in Crucero (21.0%), while the lowest was in Puerto Montt (6.7%).

Conversely, wind generation declined by 8.4 GWh (-4.5%). The average system plant factor was 17.6%, with Puerto Montt leading at 28.9% and Pan de Azúcar recording the lowest at 13.1%.

BESS discharges totaled 35.2 GWh, surpassing last week’s output by 3.0 GWh (+9.4%). The average BESS plant factor was 15.3%, peaking in the Crucero zone at 18.0%, and reaching a low of 4.9% in Diego de Almagro. We also saw some BESS injections during the day again this week.

This week, solar curtailment reached 2.0%, down by 6.3 pp from the previous week. Wind curtailment dropped to 1.1%, down by 10.5 pp. The combined curtailment rate was 1.7%, 8.0 pp lower than last week and marking the lowest weekly curtailment rate recorded in 2025 so far.