By Juan Daniel Correa Salazar – Energía Limpia / Clean Energy
There are gatherings you live on the ground—one meter away from the panelist adjusting a curve on the screen, between a quick hallway coffee and the beer at the end of the day. And there are others you follow from afar, piecing together layers of information: panels, documents, charts, statements and comments circulating through the sector’s ecosystem.
FES Chile 2025 was the latter for me—experienced from Colombia, with the echo still alive from what had happened weeks earlier in Bogotá during Future Energy Summit Colombia 2025, whose full chronicle can be read here:
Future Energy Summit 2025: Colombia’s Energy Transition at Its Electric Hour.
The closeness between both events—FES Colombia a month ago and FES Chile ending just yesterday—produced an interesting effect: what we lived in Bogotá provided a useful lens to interpret what we now see in Chile, and what took place in Chile, even followed from a distance, is giving new depth to the discussions still unfolding in Colombia.
Seen together, the two FES editions reveal something clear: the Latin American electrical transition is no longer measured only in installed megawatts, but in how the real-time operation of systems is being reconfigured.
Chile 2025: Storage Stops Being a Novelty
In Santiago, storage was not presented as a promise but as part of the daily reality of the power system. From the Ministry of Energy, the scenario was described as a grid being adjusted on the fly, while large volumes of renewables and batteries are integrated.
Figures circulating around the Summit point to a Chile that closed 2025 with around 1,800 MW of storage capacity in operation, with expectations of surpassing 2,000 MW in 2026 and moving toward multiple gigawatts by 2027, as long as the regulatory framework keeps pace.
Companies such as Trina Storage LATAM and JA Solar have been emphasizing that Chile’s BESS market has become one of the most active in the world, with a value chain maturing quickly—from manufacturing to integration and operation.
In the technical sessions, one idea captured the moment well: batteries are no longer an ornament to the system; they are changing how it is planned and operated.
In Colombia, that reflection is still framed in the future.
In Chile, it is framed in the present.
Operating in Motion: What the “BESS Experience” Teaches
The session known as “Experiencia BESS” showed that once storage truly enters the system, the entire system becomes more dynamic.
There was talk of demand peaks shifting, critical hours migrating, new congestion appearing in nodes that had not been forecast, and more sensitive price signals. From companies such as Sphera Energy, Huawei, Sungrow, Canadian Solar, and Nordex, the view converged on a point: flexibility is no longer a theoretical argument—it has become a design condition.
In parallel, recent analysis from regional voices such as Álvaro Villasante has highlighted that storage has become a structural piece of renewable expansion. It’s no longer just about installing more solar and wind, but ensuring the system can absorb, shift, and manage that energy safely and cost-effectively.
From Colombia, all of this works as a window into the near future.
Regulation: When the Metronome Arrives After the Music
In Bogotá, much of the discussion revolved around regulation: how to credibly enable storage, how to accelerate transmission, what ancillary services are needed, and how to provide consistent economic signals.
In Chile, the conversation is similar, but from a different starting point. The country is already operating with large volumes of renewables and batteries, which is why decrees DS 10, DS 37, DS 88, and DS 125 gather so much attention. They define key issues such as transmission remuneration, service recognition, and the formal integration of storage.
In both countries, a transversal idea is repeated: technology moves faster than regulation, and regulators are trying to catch up without losing stability or trust.
The Southern Cone Under a Shared Tension
The regional panel moderated by OLADE brought together representatives from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, and Chile. Each country arrived with its own list of challenges—flexibility, integration, costs, storage, supply security—but those following the discussion saw a shared pattern: Southern Cone systems face very similar challenges, only in different sequences.
From Uruguay’s experience with high renewable penetration, Argentina’s challenges around integration and planning, Paraguay’s strategic hydro generation, and Chile’s mass adoption of renewables and BESS, a practical conclusion emerged: if challenges don’t respect borders, purely national solutions become insufficient.
Bogotá and Santiago: Two Moments of the Same Film
Taken together, FES Colombia and FES Chile show two complementary moments:
- Bogotá: focus on regulatory architecture, economic signals, risk, transmission, and the conditions needed for storage to enter the system in an orderly fashion.
- Santiago: focus on real-time operation, congestion, price curves, planning adjustments, and pressure on regulation.
Despite the differences, both countries share key challenges: limited transmission, the need for flexibility, regulatory frameworks in transition, and an industry eager to move forward, even amid uncertainty.
Coffee break at FES Colombia, Bogotá: conversations that sharpen perspectives and bring the region closer.
A Movement That Doesn’t Wait for the Perfect Moment
The combined reading of both events leaves a clear message: the Latin American electric transition is not waiting for ideal conditions. It is moving forward amid tensions, adjustments, operational learning, and evolving regulatory frameworks.
Storage has stopped being marginal and became a central character.
Transmission has consolidated itself as a bottleneck.
Regulation has become the center of the debate.
Investment is watching closely—and moving according to how these pieces evolve.
Conclusion: Latin America’s Positive Tension
What was lived in Bogotá and observed from Chile shows a region entering a phase where power systems are not just designed—they are tuned, tested, and corrected while running.
This could well be called positive tension: a point where no piece is fully resolved, yet everything is advancing. A living territory where the transition stops being a promise and becomes daily practice. A fertile interlude in which Latin America writes its energy future at the very moment it is building it.
And from Energía Limpia, we will continue to be there—looking, storytelling, and connecting—because it is precisely in these moments of transformation where the direction ahead is defined.
References and Technical Inputs
FES Chile 2025 inputs: public interventions from the Chilean Ministry of Energy; participation of companies such as Trina Storage LATAM, JA Solar, Sphera Energy, Huawei, Sungrow, Canadian Solar and Nordex; content from the regional panel moderated by OLADE.
Specialized articles and analysis: Energía Estratégica, Lenergy Group, Intereléctricas, Portal Innova, documentation from FES Southern Cone 2025.
Digital sector ecosystem: publications, debates and reports shared by key industry actors on LinkedIn, including sector analyses and technical reflections relevant to the regional conversation.
Regulatory context: public information on decrees DS 10, DS 37, DS 88 and DS 125.
Colombian reference: chronicle of Future Energy Summit Colombia 2025 published in Energía Limpia:
https://energialimpia.co/es/future-energy-summit-2025/
