A storage configuration may benefit the system and be unfinanceable under current remuneration, or be financeable and provide little benefit. System benefit is the net reduction in the system’s operating and unserved-energy costs against an explicit counterfactual. Capturable revenue is what the investor receives for energy, capacity, services, and contracts. The economic evaluation determines whether the configuration benefits the system; the financial evaluation, whether it

Mexico publishes a 3-hour reference, Colombia delivery windows, and the Dominican Republic a minimum of 4; the documents examined do not show how they were derived. The Mexican 2026 call for projects gives 3 hours as a "reference" and allows different proposals. In Colombia, the products in Resolución 40208 (Resolution 40208) set windows of 08:00–18:00 and 18:00–22:00, with no minimum battery duration. The Dominican Republic requires 4 hours for batteries in a renewable tende

In PNNL’s reference database, which uses 2023 values for the United States, duration changes the cost ranking of storage. Levelized cost per MWh discharged, at 1,000 MW. At 4 hours: lithium USD 174/MWh, pumped hydro storage 186, compressed air 130. At 10 hours: lithium 168, pumped hydro storage 97, compressed air 91. At 24 hours, lithium costs 1.76 times as much as at 10. The table combines technology, operating assumptions, and site, so it does not say which technology wins

At Crucero, in northern Chile, the arbitrage margin of a hypothetical 4-hour battery, with perfect foresight, fell in 12 months. It went from 137 to 105 USD/kW per year. In that period, system storage power rose from about 1.2 to 3.2 GW during 2025. These data cannot isolate how much of the decline is attributable to batteries. The average price across all hours also fell, from 51 to 43 USD/MWh. The transitional regime that recognizes capacity for batteries lasts 10 years fro

Storage investors must evaluate how technological configurations compete, what benefit they create for the electricity system, and how much they can earn. Their profitability also depends on how those conditions will change during the asset’s life. This Perspective is for storage investors: developers, generators evaluating hybridization, funds, and financiers. Before investing, they should establish with evidence whether capital is going to the configuration that will produc

In the PEG-5, more than half of the capacity awarded was solar; for new plants, the PEG-6 admits only geothermal and natural gas. In the PEG-5, the solar component added up to 701 of the 1,258 MW of maximum guaranteed capacity awarded for 15 years. Of 960 MW of maximum natural gas offers, 15 were awarded. For the PEG-6, the Comisión Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (CNEE) required firm energy with a capacity factor of at least 90% and energy offered in all hours. For new plants

In 2025, Chile tendered the energy for its regulated customers in 3 time blocks and awarded all 3 at USD 64.5/MWh. The rules of tender 2025/01 separated night, from 23:00 to 07:59; solar, from 08:00 to 17:59; and evening peak, from 18:00 to 22:59. The Comisión Nacional de Energía (CNE) received 708 offers, 3.9 times the energy requested. It awarded 100% to 1 generator, at USD 64.5/MWh in each block, on the lowest present value of the offered prices and their indexation. Price

In Colombia, the firm energy auction awarded 99% of new capacity to solar in 2024, and 55.9% to thermal in 2026. The February 2024 auction, for 2027–2028, awarded 4.44 GW of solar. The May 2026 auction, for 2029–2030, awarded 4.07 GW of new capacity: 55.9% thermal and 38% solar. Measured over all firm energy awarded, rather than over new capacity, solar contributes 7.7%. Between the 2 auctions, the rules, prices, and hydrological context also changed. Attributing the change i

Firmness mechanisms exist in the 7 countries reviewed. Contracting energy and covering critical hours should be evaluated together. Those mechanisms — capacity, backup, replacement — vary from country to country. In Peru, in the May 2025 to April 2026 tariff, the reserve, capacity, and reliability charges add up to PEN 10.1 per kW per month. The renewable premium adds up to 7.1. Those charges pay for system backup, and their attribution to renewables remains unproven. The pro

The Consejo Unificado de las Empresas Distribuidoras groups EdeNorte, EdeSur, and EdeEste, the Dominican Republic's 3 electricity distributors. On November 2 it signed the notice of tender EDES-GER-SAEB-01-2026. The Superintendencia de Electricidad, which the notice names as supervisor of the process, authorized it through resolution SIE-141-2026-LCE of October 29, 2026. The purpose is to buy long-term energy backed by new battery energy storage systems, for up to 200 MW and

Chile's Coordinador Eléctrico Nacional operates the national power system. On Tuesday, November 3 it opened the price bids of the new-works transmission tender under Decreto Exento N°354 de 2025 (Exempt Decree No. 354 of 2025) of the Ministry of Energy. The operator reports 17 of the 19 tendered works in a position to be awarded, 89.5% of the total, with referential investments on the order of USD 500 million. The 2 remaining works, La Invernada and Montemar, were declared vo

CHILE · POWER, ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSITION An InsightIA note · November 2026 · reissued on October 12, 2026 The Superintendencia de Electricidad y Combustibles, Chile’s sector regulator, brought charges against 2 bodies involved in certifying the Nansen N12U01 meter. What changed On September 21, 2026, the Superintendencia de Electricidad y Combustibles [SEC] brought charges against Certpro SpA and Underfire S.A., 2 bodies involved in certifying the Nansen N12U01 meter

Evidence markers: [V] verified in a primary source · [D] derived by calculation · [E] estimate with explicit assumptions · [H] hypothesis pending testing Contracting energy and covering demand in critical hours are decisions that must be evaluated together. The 7 countries examined have mechanisms for recognizing, contracting, or remunerating firmness (§1). For this note, firmness means a resource’s accredited contribution under critical conditions; each country uses its own