Transelec is the most important electric energy transmission company in Chile. The Company’s transmission lines transport electricity from the production centres to the cities and large industrial and mining facilities of the country. It focuses on providing continual and uninterrupted service to the Chilean people because it is responsible for transmitting the energy that lights up the cities where 99% of the population lives.
Transelec makes available to the regulatory authorities its experience, knowledge and studies regarding the initiatives that are necessary to guarantee a reliable and sustainable transmission system for the development of the country. The company offers its clients in the electricity, mining and industrial sectors its experience and high standards in the development, operation and maintenance of transmission systems, thus allowing them to focus their financial and human resources on their main lines of business.
Transelec’s transmission system – spanning 2,900 kilometres (1,802 miles) between the city of Arica and the Island of Chiloé – includes a majority share of the trunk electricity transmission lines and substations of the two largest interconnected systems in Chile, the Central Interconnected System (SIC) and the Northern Interconnected System (SING).
The company has six Area Managements (Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Metropolitana, Maule, Biobío and Araucanía), in charge of safeguarding the appropriate operation of the transmission lines and the 48 substations it owns throughout the country, which transform the electricity transported at high voltage to low voltage for their distribution to cities and consumption centres. Transelec has a total transformation capacity of 10,231 MVA.
The Company owns all the 500 kilovolt (kV) high tension lines and most of the lines with voltages up to 110 kV. Transelec’s transmission system has a total of 8,204 kilometres (5,098 miles) of single- and double-circuit transmission lines. It owns 98% of all transmission lines belonging to the SIC trunk system, and 100% of the SING.