Weekly Market Analytics Chile Vol 12 Num 21

VOL 12 | NUM 21 | 12 December 2025

Power Markets Weekly

CHILE | 1 - 7 December 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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Brightest moment yet: solar generation reaches record injections of 8,229 MW in a single hour at 12 PM on Friday.

Glossary

Global SEN operation

The average price in Polpaico reached USD 37.9/MWh, showing a decrease of 45% compared to last week, but 17% higher than the same week last year.

Marginal cost evolution in Polpaico during past years

In terms of the generation mix, a recovery on wind participation was seen this week, with an increase of 4.0 pp in its share, reaching a total participation of 14.2% of the weekly generation mix. The only other increases in share were BESS by 0.4 pp and cogeneration by 0.6 pp.

Other technologies reduced their shares, especially thermal sources: coal, oil and gas showed a reduction of 2.6 pp, 1.1 pp and 0.4 pp, respectively. Hydro sources and solar were also slightly reduced: run-of-river by 0.4 pp, dam by 0.2 pp and solar by 0.1 pp.

Even with a diminished share on the mix, solar injections reached 8,229 MWh/h at 12 PM on Friday, which is the highest hourly injections for the technology ever. At the time, solar generation accounted for 65.7% of the generation mix.

The hourly peak demand of the week was of 12.5 GWh/h and was registered at 1 PM on Friday, when solar and wind accounted for 75.1% of the energy supply.

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

An overall coupled system was seen from Charrúa to the north, except in Crucero area that was affected by a programmed line maitenance. The main line congestions were as follows:

220 kV Lastarria – Ciruelos line, aside from Sunday, presented congestion through the whole week, mostly in solar hours, but also at night times. This caused the decoupling of Puerto Montt, which was forced to operate with oil power plants to meet the demand, hence registering the peak price of the week of USD 230.5/MWh at 10 AM on Thursday, set by Trapen power plant (oil).
Due to a programmed maintenance, the first circuit of the 500 kV line Cumbre – Nueva Cardones was out of service (from 4 December to 12 December). This led to an operation with only one circuit, which limited the flow, and so, decoupled the system north of Cardones during solar hours.
Between 3 PM and 6 PM on Monday, 500 kV Nueva Pan de Azúcar – Polpaico line was congested, decoupling the system between Pan de Azúcar and Polpaico.

In total, Crucero presented 74 hours with marginal costs of USD 0/MWh, Cardones and Pan de Azúcar 53, Polpaico and Charrúa 52, and finally Puerto Montt only 18.

Marginal cost evolution

Crucero
USD 30.8/MWh

D. de Almagro
USD 36.7/MWh

Pan de Azúcar
USD 37.5/MWh

Polpaico
USD 37.9/MWh

Charrúa
USD 37.0/MWh

Puerto Montt
USD 84.4/MWh

Solar and Wind production & BESS dispatch

Solar generation totalled 505.9 GWh this week, the highest weekly plant factor was seen in Charrúa with 36.1%, while the lowest was at Pan de Azúcar area with 23.2%. The system wide plant factor was of 25.5%.

Wind generation saw an improvement compared to the previous weeks. The total generation reached 246.3 GWh, an increase of 43.8% compared to last week. The highest weekly plant factor was seen in Charrúa area with 32.9%, while the lowest was at Polpaico area with 13.8%. The system wide plant factor was of 22.7%.

In terms of BESS injections, they reached 54.5 GWh, the area that had the biggest increase (+21.7%) was Crucero area, reaching a total injection of 46.8 GWh.

The curtailment rates of the week were 16.0% for wind (-7.8 GWh | -2.6 pp, compared to last week), and 21.4% for solar (-16.0 GWh | +1.7 pp, compared to last week), reaching a system wide curtailment rate of 19.2% (similar to last week’s rate of 18.8%).