April 29, 2025

This morning, the Center for Energy Transition (CENTRA) of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez presented the policy brief “Regulatory and Policy Pathways for Implementing Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) in Chile” at a seminar held in the Entel Room of UAI’s Errázuriz campus, bringing together authorities, academics, and representatives from the electricity sector.

The event was led by CENTRA researcher and Director of the Civil Engineering in Energy program at UAI, Daniel Olivares, who explained that VPPs—platforms that coordinate distributed energy resources such as solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles—offer an innovative solution to address the challenges of flexibility, resilience, and citizen engagement in the energy transition. “We are facing a technology that can transform the relationship between users and the electricity system, opening markets that are currently closed to households,” said Olivares.

During the presentation, it was emphasized that Chile has favorable conditions for VPP development: high penetration of renewable energy, strong growth projections for electromobility and distributed generation, and a well-established energy innovation ecosystem. However, the report also identifies key barriers, such as the absence of aggregators in current regulation, the retail monopoly, low network digitalization, and a lack of technological interoperability.

In response, the policy brief proposes a roadmap with five priority action areas: implementation of regulatory sandboxes, relaunch of the smart meter rollout with citizen support, development of interoperability standards, gradual opening of electricity markets to VPPs, and community energy models.

The seminar included a panel discussion moderated by CENTRA academic Javiera Barrera, featuring prominent sector representatives: Andrés Vicent (Empresas Eléctricas AG), Julio Maturana (Ministry of Energy), Félix Canales (CNE), Darío Morales (ACESOL), and Luis Gutiérrez (CENTRA UAI). The discussion addressed the main regulatory, citizen communication, and technological investment challenges for the adoption of these solutions.

“The interest and commitment of all stakeholders gathered here today clearly show that VPPs are not just a technological promise—they are a necessity for the modernization of our electricity system,” said Rodrigo Barraza, Director of CENTRA.

📄 The policy brief is now publicly available at the following link: View policy brief