In cooperation with the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) the AHK Chile is implementing the Roundtable Energy Partnership. Within the framework of the German-Chilean Energy Partnership, relevant energy and technology topics are discussed here with German and Chilean participants.

The seventh roundtable, this time on the topic "Distributed Generation with Renewable Energies" took place on October 13th, 2021.

The first expert, Carlos Toro Ortiz from the Energy Planning and New Technologies Unit of the Ministry of Energy, spoke on "Distributed Generation in Chilean Long-Term Energy Planning" which included a summary of the current situation and a preliminary report regarding energy planning 2023 to 2027 with emphasis on distributed generation.

Prof. Dr. Bernd Engel, Director Components of Sustainable Power Systems of the elenia Institute for High Voltage Technology and Power Systems of the Technical University of Braunschweig, presented on the topic " PV Self-Consumption as Driver for the Energy Transition", referring to the legal framework in Europe, giving examples and informing about the situation in Switzerland, Austria and Germany and the role that self-consumption of distributed generated energy can have in the future.

The presentation of Darío Morales from ACERA with the title "Net-billing in Chile" focused on the non-conventional renewable energy installed in the country and the great potential to increase its participation in the electricity matrix. Regarding the Government's objectives and the "Ruta Energética 2018-2022" published in 2018, Mr. Morales underlined that the goal of quadrupling the installed capacity for Net Billing was not ambitious enough. He stressed that the public program to develop this market lacks long-term goals, incentives, and public funding. " Although 2019 was a good year for Net Billing, the growth rate decreased significantly since 2020 due to COVID-19. Currently, the amortization period ranges from 2 to 7 years," he stressed and then referred to challenges and opportunities.

During the question-and-answer session and the panel discussion, the participants showed great interest in the topics. For example, the Q&A addressed the possibility of introducing a Net-Metering model for small installations up to 10 kW instead of a Net-Billing model and to make the installation of solar modules in new buildings mandatory.

The next Roundtable in the framework of the Energy Partnership Chile-Germany will be held on November 17th on the “Regulatory Framework for Storage Systems in Germany and Chile”.

The Energy Partnership between Chile and Germany started in April 2019. The partners are the German Ministry of Economics and Climate Action (BMWK) and the Chilean Ministry of Energy.