Minister Jiménez removes CNE’s headquarters due to error in key electrical process

(Diario Financiero)

Yesterday he was asked to resign the person in charge of the electrical area, Iván Saavedra. It would have been evaluated to do the same with the executive secretary in office.

The unprecedented invalidation of one of its tariff processes shook the National Energy Commission (CNE) to the ground. Yesterday, the Minister of Energy, Susana Jiménez, asked the resignation of the head of the Electric Area, Iván Saavedra, for his responsibility in the error that led to a series of inconsistencies in the rating of transmission facilities, a process that for the first time made as established in the new Law of Transmission, regulations in force since 2016. At the exit of Saavedra, which occurred around noon, it would have been added during the afternoon that of at least one of the technicians of that division. It transpired that the owner of the portfolio would have evaluated extending this decision also including the executive secretary in office, Carolina Zelaya, which would have involved beheading the CNE, but Jimenez would have finally backed off. “An invalidation process was initiated. We believe that this is what corresponded to deal with the inconsistencies that were detected and therefore, obviously, will start a process of investigation if that is how it is determined, “said the Secretary of State yesterday, prior to participating in the constitution of a public-private table to promote the insertion of women in the energy sector.

Consulted by the measures adopted in the face of this contingency, Minister Jiménez added that “the most important thing is to identify where the procedural errors occurred. We know what was the procedural error, but the most important thing is that there is transparency and that there is an opportunity for third parties involved in this qualification process to submit observations and discrepancies. That is why we initiated the invalidation process to, if so determined, roll back the process and allow everyone to present their opinions and discrepancies regarding the qualification of facilities. ” This crisis occurred in parallel to the search process of the new leadership of the CNE, a contest that is in charge of the High Public Management and in which the removed Saavedra and the current executive secretary were applying, who since April occupies this position as surrogate. According to the registries of the dependent entity of the Civil Service, between the 20 of May and the 11 of June recently passed 186 people presented their antecedents. Last week; The recruitment company Battaglia Consultores initiated the curricular analysis of 156 candidates who met the established legal requirements. Who pays for the transmission? The qualification of the transmission facilities is a key procedure, because it allows to determine who will pay for the use of the power lines. This, because if a line is defined as a dedicated or exclusive use type, whoever assumes the cost of moving electricity through it is the generator or the free customer it supplies. On the contrary, if it is determined that the network is of a national (ex trunk) or zonal (subtransmission before legal change) type, it is up to all users of the system and among them residential customers, who represent more than 60 % of the country’s electricity consumption. The qualification of the lines and substations in these three categories is the initial phase of the pricing of this service and allows, subsequently, the valuation of these facilities. This, in turn, yields the annual value to be paid or the transmission rate, an amount that is divided among all consumers of energy in the system, depending on a stamp system.

Energy seeks to correct reforms promoted by Máximo Pacheco A miscellaneous bill would be the formula that the Ministry of Energy would apply to correct some issues that were not sufficiently clear in the laws promoted by Máximo Pacheco during his time in this portfolio during the previous administration. One of the matters that this parliamentary initiative would contain would be adjustments to the Law of Transmission, which would include the models from which the different charging processes for electricity transport are being applied, as industry sources comment, it would have originated the error that the CNE committed and that led to the departure of the head of the Electric Area. In recent statements, the Minister Susana Jiménez said that among the matters that could be corrected is the Tariff Equality Law for the increases that these subsidies crossed between clients are causing in poor and densely populated areas, which is far from being the reduction in the accounts that were raised at the time. Among the legislative priorities of the Ministry of Energy, contained in the so-called Energy Route, there are changes to the law of distributed generation, currently in Congress and the expected Distribution Law, whose entry into Parliament was only scheduled for the second half of 2019, although the participatory work for its preparation began a few days ago. Another task of the portfolio will be to make changes to nine regulations during the next four years, as well as changes to the organic ones of the Superintendency of Energy and Fuels (SEC) and the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission (CChEN).

Minister Jiménez removes CNE’s headquarters due to error in key electrical process

Minister Jiménez removes CNE’s headquarters due to error in key electrical process

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