Economy and Business Votes

Archive for the ‘Business Electricity’ Category

Today’s electrical business is changing and the importance of their results and the privileged position in the ranking of the different markets and it is not. The good result after the privatization of the 80 and the dramatic effects on the stock market are over. Blessed are they replaced a few years ago electric actions for alternative investments. Unhappy investors who came late to take positions in a market that today is no longer governed by the suppliers but increasingly by regulators and consumer customers and their bargaining power.

My experience with large electricity customers, suppliers and regulators in other Latin American countries indicates that familiarity with this market, competitive and not without problems, has been shorter learning in Chile. Market participants, especially regulators and consumers have quickly learned from the successes and mistakes of their predecessors. Recall that the current path Chile began in 1982, followed by Argentina, the United Kingdom, Peru, Colombia, and many others from the early 90′s. So then customers have been accustomed to bid their supply contracts, in processes that lead to a good price-output pair applying their skills to agree with its suppliers to price and quality of product they buy.

The electricity business can be separated into the production, transport, distribution and soon in Chile, the marketing of electricity. In each segment there are different actors and different regulations and obviously business results. The segment here has always been of good results is the distribution of the final figures usually two digits. Worst of all is the generation today. Here are particularly affected those seeking global positions in the New World with a beachhead in the Araucana as the result was not expected. So much so that the account is applied to clearing the host of specialized high-value employees by seniority, decimated progressively give way to innovative technologies and fail for children.

So then today in Chile have low reliability and service quality were affected our main electrical systems, especially the SING. Against this there is only one answer: technical improvements at a cost provider will always be lower than the consumer supply failure. The difference is that these high costs the client bears today to receive a lower quality service. Against the above, the market is reacting, considering the power regulation, the consumer protection regulations and contractual safeguards in those large customers who negotiate their own prices and supply conditions. The course costs will eventually prices and new conditions, but negotiated with applied large consumers, whose responsibility today and since 1997 also carries the fate of the prices charged to small consumers regulated. Recall that in April is for tariff setting and year-end generators for electricity distributors events, together with announcements of policy changes, will weigh the regulatory hand of the new authorities and to be added to the consumer and their needs compensation for service failures.

The global energy model poses two major challenges: climate change and energy security. In this context we can not speak of a unique solution, but we can consider the electrification of transport as one of the lines of action. Transport consumes a third of world energy, since 90% is covered with fossil fuels. This is where electric vehicles will play a key role because of its advantages in efficiency through demand management and intelligent networks and its huge potential for introduction of renewables in the electricity sector. The electric vehicle is to be interpreted as an element to move towards a more sustainable energy model whose implementation will require major changes in addition to cultural and habits.

The emergence of this new technology would enable huge opportunities for economic and industrial development, grouped into five areas:
Electric Vehicles. Vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers must develop design solutions, and communications engine of the vehicle. They have the opportunity to innovate in design, since the location of the electric motor may be an alternative to combustion. In addition, it opens a field of research for the incorporation of new materials.

Batteries. One of the most technically complex areas. The opportunities arise in the solutions to increase the storage capacity of energy or reducing the danger of them. Furthermore, the search for alternatives to lithium is another field of world-class research.
Power Grid. Electric vehicles are primarily a solution for achieving a more sustainable energy system. Innovation should allow the development of new storage solutions, through networks of renewable energy integration. This achievement is made possible by the advent of so-called intelligent networks (smart grids).

Battery charging infrastructure. Shippers must be able to offer fast service and quality, without shortening the battery life and not create problems to the network. There are already groups of experts working on the concept of “electrolineras.”

Sociological approach. Do not forget that the goal is to put science, technology and the attendant economic development to serve the end user. The only realistic strategy is the introduction of electric vehicles through education campaigns, communication and awareness that allow a gradual transformation of customs and habits.