A joint venture comprising French electric utility firm EDF Group and Chilean electricity company AME has signed an agreement to acquire 750MW of power plants from AES Gener.
The deal involves the 379MW Nueva Renca natural-gas combined-cycle power plant and three peak-demand combustion turbines, including Los Vientos (132MW), Santa Lidia (139MW) and Renca (100MW).
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EDF and AME will jointly own the assets as part of the deal and plan to further upgrade them to optimise efficiency and environmental performance.
The two companies will also be able to further develop renewable energy projects in the country and strengthen their position in the Chilean electricity market.
EDF Group International Division executive vice-president Marianne Laigneau said: “With this acquisition, the EDF Group is consolidating its position in Chile and is acquiring flexible assets in order to deliver on the expansion of its solar business, which it has already embarked upon with its partner AME.
“Chile is one of the key countries where EDF is expanding its business in line with its CAP2030 strategy, which seeks to triple our business outside of Europe by 2030. We are extremely proud to be supporting the country with the successful delivery of its energy transition.”
The development of renewables combined with peak-demand capacity is said to be part of Chile’s key energy-transition strategies.
The Chilean Government is planning to increase the proportion of renewables in its energy mix to 60% by 2035 and intends to phase out coal-fired plants by 2050.
EDF and AME are currently partners in the Santiago Solar power plant (115MWp) and a gas-to-power project, which includes the Central el Campesino combined-cycle plant and the GNL Penco LNG storage/regasification infrastructure.
