The head of the World Energy Council lifts Chile's energy storage regulations

Chile advances along the Energy Transition Highway and even occupies an avant -garde position in areas such as energy storage rules and regulations.

And via the Chile Committee of the World Energy Council, the country shares its experience with other nations.

The Secretary General of the World Energy Council and CEO Angela Wilkinson recently visited Chile on the 10th anniversary of the founding of the local committee, which includes members from the public and private sector and science.

B terme met with Wilkinson to find out more and to discuss both local and global topics.

The mission of the Council in London's headquarters over 100 years ago is to promote “sustainable care and use of energy for the greatest benefit of all people”.

In Panama, the Council will hold its annual assembly of the global energy administrator, called World Energy Week, in October.

This is the first of a two -part interview with Angela Wilkinson

BNamericas: What can you tell us about the Chilean presence of the Council?

Wilkinson: The Chilean member committee has created an effective and permanent multi-stakeholder platform for the discussion of energy issues, prospects, problems, challenges and solutions.

And it is pretty remarkable how the ecosystem is really shown in Chile. It is one of our outstanding model members of the world because they have done so much work to get through the classic energy players and to contribute the wider ecosystem to have these conversations.

And they have set up programs. You have a lively program for future energy leaders. You have a women-in energy program. You have a fantastic program for children in energy.

And although many people in a world with trillion dollars think that this is all trivial things, it actually depends on what their story is. And our story is that energy is for all of us. And it is the usefulness of the energy that we try to have the conversation.

It's not about kilowatts. It's about what energy provides people. If you want to have this conversation, you have to get out of the Wall Street jargon of large offers and kilowatt hours and ask people what they want for energy for? What do you need energy for? Do you get the necessary service from the energy? And what do we do about it?

Chile has such an agile and open way of thinking to learn and show things with other parts of the world. What we see from Chile are regulatory innovations in relation to memory that leads in the world.

The member committee brings Chilean progress into the world and the voice of Chile in the World Energy Council. And I find that remarkable.

BNamericas: Can you tell us a little about the Global Focus of the Council?

Wilkinson: For We have been a visionary and pragmatic leadership community for 100 years. We don't want the world to get worse, the future worse or as it is. We believe that there are always new and better opportunities and energy. So that's the visionary piece.

And the pragmatic piece is that it is not enough to inspire. You have to concentrate on how to do it, not just the ideal of what you want to achieve.

So we look at that. We take a look at how we get the exchange and best -practical exchange in different regions, various sectors and different levels of social levels. It does not speak in terms of gigawatts and the technocratic jargon that comes out of energy. There is actually a conversation with each other and relocates this conversation from all these offers that are going on.

Can we stop care? Can we replace the supply? Can we get more care? Where is the rest of the system? Where are the users? Where are the requirements? Where are the needs? Where will the use that enables you to afford to do that you can pay for the offer?

So my feeling is that in the past six years we have tried to change the conversation from a relevant leadership to a user -centered system or change procedure. And so I think that you have to be a bit visionary because you frame it differently. What we want are practical solutions.

BNamericas: What is the score in terms of global energy transition? What do we do well? What do we have to improve?

Wilkinson: I always start to ask people if they would make something out if we only take a step back. There is no global energy transfer: Several energy expansion and transitions will take place in all regions of the world. So if we don't put the 's' on it, it becomes problematic at first. And the difference depends on how you want to frame the challenge.

If you only want to frame it in CO2 emissions, we have made it since the Kyoto protocol what we have done [which entered into force in 2005] Prevents the addition of emissions from the additional energy supply that we have set up in the system. But we did very little about the decarbonization of what previously existed.

So we have done a relative decarbonization and no absolute decarbonization.

With regard to transitions, it is not just a technology transfer that is going on. It's not just about energy. We have a transition to a digital future. So we look at how we encounter the demand for energy frequency, energy for aspiring and developing economies, a better life, the dignity and also the growth of digitally. And what we really face at the moment is what we could call the electrification super cycle that is buffered by geopolitical storms.

And we underestimated and grow energy deficits because the basic electrification measure of the deficit situation really does not meet. We have mother nature who start to mix the deck. We had two power failures in Chile last year. So maybe we would like to think about who the Trump card really holds.

We have biting climate effect. And we basically have a very small workforce to deliver the vitality of energy for the next 100 years. We have a gap in relation to the skills and the talent side. So that is what I would say is generally the situation.

BNamericas: How do you see the role of Latin America in global energy transitions? How can the region contribute to this?

Wilkinson: I think the starting point is that there is nobody for everyone. But it's not time to reinvent the bikes.

So how do we understand the effects of regional diversity? And how do we help different places and people who learn with and from each other? The Council exists for this. So when I come to Latin America, I only mean the phenomenal space, the resources. There is a lot of Latin America to develop energy resources and develop supply chains.

What is missing here is always investments due to the structural inequalities. How does the region attract investments? Chile was quite successful because there are stable regulatory framework and they look progressive and foresight. Argentina suffered from a lack of investments in his energy system, and I think what I heard was the terrible statistics that poverty was 50% in the first half of last year.

And so the trade deficit is a big problem. And that affects the investment. And so that the investment comes into energy, you need a regulatory framework. And so you have to work on this stabilization.

Latin America is not a single room. Brazil is a region in itself. So when they talk about Argentina, Brazil, they talk about Chile, they talk about these different countries. You have to believe that there are also several transitions and additions here. And it learns everywhere. There are big bright spots.

What Brazil invests in the transition with 30 billion US dollars, which Chile did with the tightening of licensing and approval in relation to regulatory innovation, the storage, what Colombia did. Wherever you go, you will find light spots. And it is important that the world learns with Latin America.

There is a mentality problem here regionally. I asked people, what is the story that is going on? They told me: “Well, basically we still see Europe as parents and try to please the parents.” So there is a kind of instability of “We are on our own feet, but we want someone to tell us that we do a good job.”