Energy Crisis, Market Liberalisation and Social Resistance. The reform of the electricity tendering process in the take-off of non-conventional renewable energies in Chile. 1990-2020

Abstract

In the last decade, Chile experienced an accelerated take-off in the participation of Non-Conventional Renewable Energies (NCRE) in its electricity generation matrix. This process was strongly influenced by the need to overcome the country's energy crisis, as a result of the oligopolistic structure that the electricity system had reached and, since the 2000s, the closure of gas imports from Argentina. Furthermore, the blockage, due to social resistance, to traditional energy options imposed the need to promote alternative energy sources. To overcome this critical situation, a series of specific reforms were introduced to the bidding regime which, while maintaining the neoliberal scheme, allowed for the removal of the barriers that had led to a situation of oligopolistic concentration in the electricity market and facilitated the entry of new private investors in the NCRE sector.