Securing the stability and resilience of the power grid against climate change and the massive integration of renewable energy is no longer a long-term challenge but an urgent requirement that demands immediate technological responses. In this landscape, Hitachi Energy has consolidated its role as the strategic technological partner enabling Chile's energy transition, presenting concrete solutions in digitalization, automation, and predictive intelligence to shield the country's transmission infrastructure.
The discussions took place within the framework of the "2026 Energy Forum," an event organized by the World Energy Council (WEC) Chile with the Institute of the Americas. The event aimed to bring together authorities, regulators, academia, and industry to assess the course of energy policy during the first 100 days of President José Antonio Kast's administration, guided by the pillars of security, equity, and sustainability that define the Energy Trilemma.
Policy support and international perspective
Minister of Energy Ximena Rincón formally presented the guidelines for the 2026-2030 Energy Roadmap that focus on modernizing the tariff system, boosting self-consumption, and increasing competitiveness. According to the Minister, the administration's priorities seek to efficiently balance the energy trilemma, reconciling security of supply, competitiveness for households and businesses, and environmental sustainability.
"With 70 percent of its matrix already clean, Chile has the opportunity, but also the responsibility, to show the world how to operate the power system of the future with security and resilience," said María Martín, International Director of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), who highlighted the advanced state of Chile's grid and the country's leading role in the process: The expert also stressed the necessity of integrating artificial intelligence tools into energy planning to meet the growing demand from sectors such as data centers.
Paradigm shift: "zero-cost" resilience
This urgency to design smarter, more adaptable grids that can respond to new consumption demands was the central theme of Hitachi Energy's participation. The company focused its analysis on the panel "Security and Resilience of the Energy System," featuring Mauricio Mazuela, General Manager of Hitachi Energy Chile, and Juan Carlos Olmedo, Chairman of the National Electrical Coordinator (CEN).
During the panel, Mazuela proposed breaking the paradigm and strengthening the electrical system, which represents an additional cost or financial burden for transmission. In this regard, the executive argued that “any technology aimed at preventing contingencies ultimately results in ‘zero cost’ for the system, as the true savings come from avoiding the economic impact of subsequent failures and permanently guaranteeing grid operational continuity under any circumstance.”
This preventive vision already has a concrete milestone in the country, thanks to the launch of Hitachi Energy's Remote Monitoring Center in Chile. This facility utilizes advanced analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and predictive algorithms for fault prognosis, enabling power grid operators to anticipate anomalies in real time. With this, the firm demonstrated that Chile has the technology ready to lead smart grids capable of withstanding extreme weather events and supporting critical power demands.
Flexibility and speed of response
The company's technological proposal directly addresses the needs of the system operator.
"Technology providers play a highly important role in delivering new technologies to make the system increasingly flexible," said CEN Chairman Olmedo.
Similarly, he projected a sustainable power system by 2035, supported by distributed energy resources to pass the benefits of decarbonization directly to consumers.
"Challenges such as renewable energy curtailment, transmission capacity constraints, and the need for large-scale energy storage are debates that the sector has dragged on for over a decade,” said Mazuela. “Because of this, the strategic differentiator today lies not in identifying the problems, but in the speed of response and the willingness to implement the technology that Hitachi Energy already has available and globally proven to unlock these bottlenecks.”
The 2026 Energy Forum highlights public-private collaboration as the primary driver of change. In the closing remarks, the Executive Director of WEC Chile, María Trinidad Castro, summarized the spirit of the gathering, noting that the success of the transition depends on the ability of different stakeholders to reach consensus on shared content and goals: "Together, building an energy system that is not only technically robust, but truly at the heart of everyone’s life".
