POWER September 2012 - 63

POWER IN CHILE
HidroAysén's transmission. According to
the company, " as long as Chile lacks a
shared energy strategy which details the
characteristics of the country's future energy
matrix, Colbún thinks that there is no
room to develop such big and sophisticated
projects. "
In an interview with GBR, the subsecretary
for energy of the Chilean government
reaffirmed the government's commitment
to follow the master plan with an " electric
highway " that should clear the way for building
the HidroAysén transmission line. Given
the circumstances, in the best-case scenario,
HidroAysén's five dams will not operate before
2020.
Equipment suppliers are following developments
closely. " We are very close to some
of the new projects, like HidroAysén and
Energía Austral, " said John O'Shea, executive
director of RTHO, a company specialized
in supplying the market with equipment
for high-voltage lines. " Unfortunately, the
schedule has changed from time to time;
last week we had a meeting with ENDESA
for the five hydro plants in the southern part
of Chile, and the details were quite different
from what we knew about three months
ago. We are looking at that project anxiously,
because it is important for us and for the
economy of our country. With its delays, it is
attracting a lot of interest from international
contractors. "
The scale of such projects provides both
opportunities and challenges for service providers.
Chilean engineering company Poch
joined efforts with SWECO and EPS to
shape the final EIA study for HidroAysén's
five dams. " The study for HidroAysén's power
plants, a document of over 10,000 pages,
was one of the largest completed in Chile, "
said Miguel Sanchez, managing director of
Poch. " Its undertaking required the management
of over 200 specialists. It is risky to allocate
more than 25% of your own resources
on a single project, so when working on a
project of such immense scale, we looked
for partners to share the risk of investment
and capital requirements. By working with
SWECO and EPS, we were able to manage
this risk and carry out all of the study's requirements. "
On
paper, there are no doubts that HidroAysén
is a game-changing project. However, the
actual timeline fosters doubts. " If it is going
to be ready in 2020, HidroAysén cannot serve
the needs of the demand in the short term, "
said Samuel Jerardino, associate director of
KAS, a local engineering company. " At the
same time, it is foreseeable that solar energy
will be a much cheaper source of energy than
HidroAysén will be in 2020. "
HidroAysén is not the only project exSeptember
2012 | POWER
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63
periencing difficulty. Soon after Energía
Austral-a joint venture between the
Swiss mining company Xstrata and Australian
power generator Origin Energy
that is planning to construct three additional
dams in the region of Aysén for
some 1,000 MW-received the green light
for its project's EIA, the Supreme Court
asked for additional studies to be carried
out. Some 3,000 km north, the future of
another massive project hangs in the balance.
MPX, the Brazilian group chaired by
magnate Eike Batista, is experiencing delays
at its Castilla project. The 2,100-MW
coal-fired plant had received approval for
its EIA when the appeals court of Antofagasta
threw everything into jeopardy following
an appeal by local communities.
The puzzle got more complex when
Chile endorsed the International Labour
Organization Convention No. 169, dealing
with the rights of indigenous peoples.
" That has been an important step for the
country, but the fact that the government
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