The interconnection of Chile’s northern SING and central SIC power grids could help the country avoid future blackouts, according to the undersecretary of energy Sergio de Campo.

“We have a very complicated energy transmission system here in Chile and this makes our system very vulnerable. We need to reinforce and improve its operation [and] without doubt one of the benefits of having an interconnection would be that there could be collaboration [between the grids] in this type of event,” De Campo told BNamericas on the sidelines of an energy event in Santiago.

The country has seen numerous blackouts and electrical failures since last year’s 8.8-magnitude February 27 earthquake, including a power outage on the SIC grid on the evening of September 24 that plunged 11mn inhabitants into darkness.

Earlier this year European power firm IPR-GDF Suez submitted an EIA for an interconnection project, proposing a 570km double circuit transmission line at an estimated cost of US$500mn. Chile’s government is currently investigating the proposals in an effort to make sure they are technically feasible, according to De Campo.

“We have to analyze what would be the potential impacts for the SIC grid of a fault on the SING grid. This is being evaluated and its results should be known by the end of the year.”

Saturday’s power cut stemmed from a fault in the Ancoa substation in southern region VII, operated by Chile’s biggest transmission firm Transelec. Malfunctions in remote recovery software also affected attempts to restart supply immediately, meaning that power had to be restored manually by technicians.

In a statement, the energy ministry said that power had been restored to around 95% of consumers within three hours of the outage, however, some areas were left without electricity overnight on Saturday.

According to De Campo, Chile’s power and fuel regulator SEC will now conduct an investigation into the incident, and the undersecretary stressed that fines are likely to be imposed. A similar blackout last March led to fines totaling 4.4bn pesos (US$8.5mn) imposed on 115 companies involved in power distribution across the SIC.

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