Challenges for special protection systems in the Chilean electricity market

The Chilean electricity market, formally established in 1982, has a classical Pool type structure, with auditable costs and centralized operations. During its history, the Chilean electricity system has faced high growth rates in energy demands, transmission congestions, this along with a system expansion based on probabilistic criteria incorporated in its economic assessments. In this context, economic opportunities have been created in order to introduce levels of flexibility, by means of special protection schemes (SPS). This paper presents the development of these SPSs, distinguishing economic motivations and technical design criteria. A classification of the different types of SPSs is proposed. Also, the advantages and disadvantages of the different solutions are being presented through application examples. Finally, the future challenges in this field are presented.